Kenya's Odira win world 800m gold

Kenya's Lilian Odira the new 800m world champion, taking the title over from her Kenyan compatriot Mary Moraa. [Courtesy]

Kenya's Lilian Odira overhauled Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson to win the women's 800 metres title at the world championships in Tokyo on Sunday.

Odira set a championship record-- and a massively improved personal best time -- of 1min 54.62sec for victory, beating by 0.06sec the previous best set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of the then-Czechoslavakia in Helsinki in 1983.