Maazouzi (right) had just enough in the tank to win gold

France's Driss Maazouzi won an enthralling men's 1500m race to take gold in a time of three minutes 3:42.59 seconds.

Beaten into second by a narrow margin was Kenya's Bernard Lagat in 3:42.62 while Morocco's Abdelkader Hachlaf was not far behind in 3:42.71.

There were no clues to the exciting finish in the race's first 1100m, but with 400m remaining Kenya's Cornelius Chirchir shot to the front.

Maazouzi was the first to react. He passed Chirchir and dug deep to hold off the pre-race favourite Lagat down the home straight.

American sprinter Michelle Collins won the women's 200m gold medal in 22.18 seconds, the fastest time in the world for more than nine years.

Muriel Hurtis of France took silver and Anastasiya Kapachinskaya of Russia the bronze, with Collins setting a time that has been beaten by just two other women in history.

Only world record holder Merlene Ottey and Russia's Irina Privalova have run faster on an indoor track.

Collins, 32, dropped down to the 200m from her usual 400m distance for these championships as she works on her speed ahead of the world outdoor event in Paris in August.

The 23-year-old Hurtis, the European indoor and outdoor champion, was favourite to take gold but could not deal with the blistering pace of Collins, the American indoor champion.

There was further cause for American celebration in the long jump pit, where Dwight Phillips won the men's gold medal in a thrilling finale.

The 25-year-old produced a lifetime best leap of 8.29m in the final round to edge out Spain's Yago Lamela by just one centimetre.

American Miguel Pate was third with a leap of 8.21.

"I am really good under pressure. Normally my last jump is my best jump and I was able to pull it off today," said Phillips.

The American had led going into the final round with a best of 8.23 before Lamela, who set a world leading mark this year of 8.43, snatched the lead with 8.28.

The Spaniard, who had started favourite for gold in the absence of injured Cuban Ivan Pedroso, had to settle for silver, though, just as he did in 1999.

"I thought I had won it for a moment," he said.

"I'm obviously disappointed not to have won but I'm happy with how I jumped considering I had problems with my hamstring throughout the competition."

Earlier on Saturday, world record holder Stacy Dragila failed to qualify for the final of the women's pole vault.

Dragila entered at the qualifying height of 4.30m - well short of her world mark of 4.78m.

But the Olympic gold medalist and two-time world outdoor champion failed three times, never even leaving the pole to reach the bar at the third attempt.

By contrast, her big rival, Russia's Svetlana Feofanova, whose world mark Dragila had beaten at the United States Indoor championships at Boston on 2 March, sailed over the bar at her first attempt.

The American was clearly upset by her failure to qualify, rushing away from reporters after the event.

"What do you want to talk about? It was a bad day," she said on her way off the track.

The clash between Dragila - who also holds the outdoor world record of 4.81m - and Feofanova was expected to be one of the highlights of the championships.

Dragila narrowly defeated Feofanova on misses in a dramatic competition at the 2001 world outdoor championships in Edmonton.