Lewis wins heptathlon by a few yards

Britain's Denise Lewis snatched the women's heptathlon gold at the Sydney Games on Sunday, winning the title by just a few yards in the final discipline of the competition.

She finished with 6,584 points, just ahead of Yelena Prokhorova of Russia (6,531). Natalya Sazanovich of Belarus, the silver medallist at Atlanta, was third (6,527).

Prokhorova won the final event, the 800 metres, but could not quite get far enough ahead of Lewis to take the title.

The event proved a graveyard for champions. Ghada Shouaa of Syria, the 1996 Olympic champion, quit after injuring her leg just 20 metres into her opening hurdles heat on Saturday morning.

France's world champion Eunice Barber, short of fitness and hampered by a thigh injury, joined her on the sidelines with two events remaining after a series of below-par performances.

The 28-year-old Lewis has never reached the top of the podium at a major global championships, despite the consolation of Commonwealth golds in 1994 and 1998 and the European title, also in 1998.

Her first Olympics in Atlanta ended in a bronze while she won silver at the world championships last year.

Barber, with the year's world best score of 6,842, would have been a big favourite had she been fit.

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