High jump queen Nicola Olyslagers has stepped outside her comfort zone to become the first Australian to win multiple world indoor titles as she and countrywoman Eleanor Patterson finished 1-2 in Nanjing.
With Liam Adcock leaping to bronze in the long jump and the women's 4x400m relay quartet also finishing third on Sunday night, the final-day flourish in China propelled Australia to its best ever global short-track championship tally with seven medals in all.
In another fine duel, both the perennial high jump rivals recorded a best clearance of 1.97m on Sunday, with Olyslagers pocketing the gold as Patterson had missed once at 1.92m.
World record holder and reigning Olympic champ Yaroslava Mahuchikh from Ukraine (1.95m) claimed the bronze on Sunday, also on countback.
In addition to her two world indoor crowns in Glasgow last year and now in Nanjing, 28-year-old Olyslagers is proving a serial medal winner with silvers at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics and a bronze at the 2023 world championships in Budapest.
"This is the first time I've come from a gold-medal position to try and defend something outside of Australia," said Olyslagers.
"I knew that if I wanted to jump as high as I wanted, to be as competitive as I wanted, I needed to do things outside of my normal comfort zone.
"I needed to do something new, like start a world championships as my first competition of the season - to do something crazy.
"Going into it, I was really inspired by Yaroslava's world record attempts last year, and how she changed her new run-up, so I was jumping with a new run-up today.
"I want to jump as high as Yaroslava. If I want to be competitive, I needed to be trying and changing things up."
Olyslagers is the first Australian to win more than one gold at the biennial championships.
"I can't be mad about the fact that I came away with a silver," said Patterson.
"I am here for the gold medal, but I am glad about the result.
"I came into these championships ready to jump a lot higher, but it was just not the day even though I feel like I'm in the condition to do so."
In the evening session, 28-year-old Sydneysider Adcock earned his first major medal in his first indoor competition with an 8.28m long jump.
It could have been even better as his opening-round leap ended up being just one centimetre behind Jamaican silver medalist Wayne Pinnock's 8.29 and two adrift of Italian winner Mattia Furlani's 8.30.
In the final event, an understrength 4x400m relay relay, the young Australian team of Ellie Beer, Ella Connolly and the teenage pair of Bella Pasquali and Jemma Pollard finished third of just five entrants in 3min 32.65.
They battled well behind the Polish silver medallists (3:32.05) and the runaway American quartet of Quanera Hayes, Bailey Lear, Rosey Effiong and Alexis Holmes (3:27.45).
Melburnian Georgia Griffith set an Oceanian record in the 1500m, but her new landmark of 4:00.80 was not quite enough to get her on the podium, as she finished fourth while Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay won comfortably in a championship record 3:54.86.
After Lachlan Kennedy finished second in the men's 60m on Friday and Jess Hull and Ky Robinson pocketed bronze in the two 3000m races on Saturday, the seven-medal total easily eclipsed Australia's previous best of four set in Toronto in 1993.
International highlight of the final evening was Norwegian great Jakob Ingebrigtsen racing to victory in the 1500m in 3:38.79 a day after taking the 3000m crown, thus emulating the double of Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie in 1999.
