Phillips Idowu bounded to Britain's only gold medal of the World Indoor Championships last night in Valencia, and wrote out the name of Jonathan Edwards - at least indoors.

Idowu had his hair died fire, and sported three rubies blazing in ear piercings, but it was the 29-year-old from Hackney who was on fire as he broke the Commonwealth record with 17.75 metres, fifth best distance ever indoors and just eight centimetres short of the world best shared jointly by Swede Christian Olsson and Cuban Aliecer Urrutia.

Indeed, technology showed he was 9.9 centimetres behind the board, so this was a world record which got away.

However, in doing this, he also relieved Edwards of the 10-year old British best (17.64m). Edwards, who was doing TV commentary, said he had threatened to thump his colleagues, Paul Dickinson and Steve Cram, if they mentioned his record had gone one more time.

This was seven centimetres further than Idowu has ever gone outdoors, but still leaves him 0.54 behind Edwards' world outdoor mark.

Though Idowu has won Commonwealth and European indoor gold, Edwards has been critical of his lack of consistency. He was sixth in the Sydney Olympics, and did not record a jump in Athens. But there were four efforts beyond 17.00m last night, and three of these would have won. He has emerged from Edwards' shadow, for as he himself pointed out: "This is a title I never won."

Idowu was buried in third place when he produced his winning attempt, and was 28cms clear of his Cuban rival in second.

"I haven't done yet," Idowu promised. "There's still a whole heap of medals to pick up. But don't make me an Olympic favourite for Beijing. A few guys were not here." However, 17.75m could also be good for gold in Beijing. "I'll just stay in the background until it's absolutely necessary."

He decided only two weeks ago to compete here, after a back injury, and UK performance director Dave Collins, hugely impressed, said: "One day he is going to jump out of the pit."

The gold plus four silvers, carried Britain to fourth on the medal table and third on the placings table (determined by performances in finals) a highly satisfactory result, even if that of Dwain Chambers owed nothing to the sport's funding.

Chris Tomlison was denied long jump gold by just two centimetres; Kelly Sotherton missed pentathlon gold by 15 points; Chambers lost the men's sprint by .03, and Jeanette Kwakye the women's 60m title by just two hundredths.

All five medal winners train at the Lee Valley performance centre in London's East End, built from the ashes of the stadium's abortive attempt to host the world outdoor event in 2003.

Yelena Sobelova smashed the world 1500m record for the second time inside a month. The Russian finished in 3:57.71, .34sec inside the record she set in Moscow in February. Gelete Burka, who will run for Ethiopia at the World cross-country championships in Edinburgh later this month, was third.

Susan Scott was unlucky to miss out on a 1500m final place by just 0.3sec. Tariku Bekele kept the 3000m title in the family, defending the crown won two years ago in Moscow by his brother, Kenenisa. "I train with him, but would rather race when he is not there," he said. "He told me how to run this today," he said. "He told me to make the last kilometre fast." And he did: 2:22.52, and final 2000 in 4:59.65.

He will not race in Edinburgh, but added: "I think Kenenisa will be in Scotland."

The Maputo Express was finally derailed. After seven golds and a silver at 800 metres, Maria Mutola, the former Olympic and double Commonwealth champion from Mozambique, was forced to accept bronze. She had only herself to blame, controlling the race at the front, but too slowly to take the sting from younger, basically faster, rivals. It was 63.11 at 400m and 94.14 at 600m, allowing Australian Tamsin Lewis to snatch victory in 2:02.57, the slowest winning time since the inaugural event in Paris 23 years ago.

We saw the future of the men's 800m in Abubaker Kaki Khamis. Just 18, the Sudanese is already a legend in Kartoum, where crowds of 3000 turn out to watch him train. Khamis won in 1min 44.81sec, leading from gun to photo electric finish beam. He was through 200m in 24.92, 400 in 51.26, and 600 in 78.28, and only in the final stages did the opposition draw close.

Only Yelena Isinbayeva (pole vault) and Meseret Defar (3000m) managed to defend their titles from Moscow two years ago.