Craig Mottram became the first Australian to defend a World Cup title with a stunning victory over Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekele in the 3,000 metres in Athens' Olympic stadium.

Mottram clocked a personal best and championship record of 7mins32.19secs, smashing the previous meet record of 7:41.37 he set in Madrid in 2002.

Mottram broke away from Bekele, the 5,000m world record holder, with about 200m to go and kept increasing his advantage over the Africa team representative, who finished second in 7:36.25. Driss Maazouzi of France was third in 7:47.80.

Mottram delivered Oceania's second of three gold medals for the day and the meet.

Fellow team captain Valerie Vili of New Zealand earlier won the women's shot put with 19.87m ahead of Russia's Olga Ryabinkina (19.54) and the Americas team's Yumileidi Cumba of Cuba (19.12).

And Australia's Steve Hooker was the only man to clear 5.80m to win the pole vault, beating Asia vaulter Daichi Sawano of Japan and Americas representative German Chiaraviglio of Argentina, who both cleared 5.70m.

Hooker's result should put him at No.1 when the next International Association of Athletics Federations rankings are released, with compatriot Paul Burgess at No.2.

Australia's Sarah Jamieson was third in the women's 1,500m with a time of 4:02.82. Asia's Maryam Yusuf Jamal from Bahrain won in a championship record 4:00.84 and Russian Tatyana Tomashova was second in 4:02.45.

The World Cup, held every four years, involves continental teams Oceania, Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe, plus the United States, the host country and the top two teams from the European Cup - this year France and Russia in the men's events and Russia and Poland in the women's.

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