Wariner tamed by Australian Batman

American 400 metres world champion Jeremy Wariner suffered a surprise loss to Australian Daniel Batman over 200 metres at the Sydney Grand Prix meeting yesterday.

Batman led from the start and the Olympic 400 metres gold medallist never threatened to overtake him, the Australian winning in a time of 20.81 seconds to Wariner's 20.93.

"He's proven that he's a champion so anytime you can take a scalp like that it's an honour," Batman told reporters.

"But in saying that it's February, a long way from the competitive European season."

Wariner was unconcerned by his loss. "This is really just a tune-up race for me to see where I'm at with my training and what I need to work on," he said.

World 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica pulled out of the event with a knee injury but is due to run in Melbourne on Thursday.

Olympic and world silver medallist Adam Nelson recorded the third-longest indoor shot-put throw of all-time to win the Tyson Invitational meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Nelson registered 22.40m to defeat world outdoor and indoor champion Reese Hoffa (21.14m) by more than a metre with the longest put in 19 years.

Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele set a world best for the men's indoor two miles of eight minutes 4.35 seconds at a meeting in Birmingham, England, yesterday. Bekele's time was faster than the 8:04.69 mark set by fellow Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie in 2003. "I'm very pleased. It's incredible for me," Bekele, the world and Olympic 10,000 metres champion, told BBC television.

Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva broke the world indoor pole vault record by clearing 4.95 metres at the Sergei Bubka invitational meeting yesterday. The Russian improved her own mark of 4.93 set in the same competition a year ago.