Veronica, the sprint queen

Survives an exciting finish in women's 100m:

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from Japan

THLETICS: Jamaican Veronica Campbell survived an exciting photo finish to emerge as the fastest woman at the 11th IAAF World Championship at the Nagai Stadium here under lights today.

Having bagged the 100m silver at the last World Championship in Helsinki two years ago, the 25-year-old Jamaican record holder had a close call in surviving an American tri brigade of Lauryn Williams, Carmelita Jeter and Torri Edwards.

Unlike after a finish in most other races, there were no immediate celebrations and reactions. For a moment, it looked everybody at the stadium, including the 100m finalists were in wilderness. Even the giant electronic screen displayed only Willians name on top with a 11.01 second timing.

Uncertainty was written all over their faces, not only the sprinters but also on thousands of spectators. It took several minutes to separate the winner as both Campbell and Williams clocked the identical timing of 11.01 seconds.

Campbell had a relatively slower start than Williams and the American trio was firing all their cylinders. But the Jamaican black magic worked at the end as Campbell reached her top gear by the middle of the race. Finally, it took a few minutes for the officials to separate the two in an exciting photo finish.

Running against the wind on lane six with Campbell on her immediate right, pre-event favourite Edwards had the best reaction time as the eight women sprinters were off their blocks.

Edwards' team mates Jeter and Williams joined the hottest speed contest as the race went on high pace. Campbell could not believe her eyes when she finally saw her name as the winner of the biggest race for the day as the green and yellow Jamaican flag dressed her for the victory march. "It was a dream come true. I could not believe that I survived such a tense finish. This is a big moment that I have always been looking forward to," Campbell said after that exciting final which kept the spectators on the edges of their seats.

The bronze medallist Jeter was only one hundredth of a second behind the first two while the 2003 World Championship gold medalist Edwards had to be satisfied with only the fourth place after timing 11.05 seconds.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia continued its dominance in the long distance business. The mighty Ethiopians accounted for both the gold and silver medals of men's 10,000m final today. Kenenisa Bekele clocked a season's best 27 minutes, five minutes and 90 seconds to secure the gold medal while his team mate Sileshi Sihine returned a timing of 27:09.03 to finish second.

Kenyan Martin Irungu Mathathi (27:12.17) won the bronze. While the Ethiopians took major honours in men's 10,000m, it was the Russian dominance that was evident in women's 3,000m steeplechase final as Yekaterina Volkova (9:06.57) and Tatyana Petrova (9:09.19) won the silver and bronze medals. Kenyan Eunice Jepkprir (9:20.09) settled for the bronze.

Portugal's Nelson Evora had a leap of 17.74m to take the gold in men's triple jump, ahead of Jadel Gregorio (17:59 - Brazil) and Walter Davis (17.33 - USA) accounted for the silver and bronze respectively.

The gold medal in men's hammer throw went to Ivan Tsikhan (Belarus). He not only bagged the gold but did that in style as his victorious feat of 83.63m accounted for the World's leading performance this year.

Osaka, Monday