Australia's Lewis takes women's 800 meters world indoor title

    VALENCIA, Spain, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Tamsyn Lewis of Australia won the world indoor title of women's 800 meters on Sunday, edging seven-time champion Maria de Lurdes Mutola of Mozambique into third place at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain.

    Lewis ran a time of two minutes and 2.57 seconds to win her first major title. Ukrainian Tetiana Petlyuk won the silver medal in a time of 2:02.66.

    The legendary 35-year-old Mutola, who was in her last world indoor championships, finished in 2:02.97 to take the third place.

    Mutola, a three-time outdoor world champion and Olympic champion in Sydney, plans to retire at the end of the season.

    The Valencia worlds opened on Friday morning, which will conclude on Sunday night.

    A total of 646 athletes from 157 countries and regions are participating in the tournament, the last major athletics event before the August Olympic Games in Beijing.