Great Britain yesterday celebrated their biggest medal haul in World Indoor Championship history.

That feat was made to seem even more remarkable given that Mo Farah had his medal effectively taken away from him by the officials.

Farah finished fourth in a physical 3000 metres final in Istanbul, but was promoted to third when, prompted by UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee, the race referee agreed that Kenya's Edwin Soi had been guilty of obstruction. That was briefly reflected in the official medal table, but was then overturned following an official appeal from the Kenyan team, which could not be challenged further under IAAF rules.

"For me it was clear," Van Commenee said. "I have studied the footage many times and the referee agreed, so that's why he changed the result. I feel pretty stuffed, really."

Farah was similarly perturbed by the decision. "For a minute I did think they'd awarded me the bronze medal, but I'm disappointed no matter what," Farah said.

"I personally think that I was obstructed and I couldn't get out. But that was only my opinion; that's what referees are for."

However, five medals on the final day took the team's tally to nine – surpassing the total of seven achieved in Birmingham in 2003 – with the highlight a thrilling gold for the women's 4x400m team of Shana Cox, Nicola Sanders, Christine Ohuruogu and Perri Shakes-Drayton.

The men's team of Conrad Williams, Nigel Levine, Michael Bingham and Richard Buck also claimed silver, while there were bronze medals for Shara Proctor in the long jump, Andrew Osagie in the 800m and Holly Bleasdale in the pole vault.

In the women's relay, Britain were down in third place when Ohuruogu took the baton, but the Olympic champion signalled a welcome return to form with a storming leg to hand over in first place to hurdles specialist Shakes-Drayton. She held on bravely, sealing gold by 0.03 seconds.

"Training's been going well so I'm just happy that I've come out and we've won a gold medal," said Ohuruogu, who has suffered from injuries and a loss of form since winning Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008. "I didn't really want to come here, I don't like indoors very much. I knew if I didn't run well, Lloyd [Cowan, her coach] was going to kill me anyway."

There was further success in the women's pole vault where world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva needed just two vaults to win gold, with Holly Bleasdale taking bronze, although she only cleared 4.75m at the second attempt. "I'm really, really happy with my first major medal. I'm so excited," Bleasdale said. "But me being so happy meant I didn't focus enough and only really attacked it on my last attempt. I know I can improve on that."

In the long jump, Shara Proctor had to settle for bronze despite leading with her first jump, while Andrew Osagie made a late burst down the home straight to claim third place in the 800m, which was won by Ethiopia's Mohammed Aman.