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US regain lost prestige

Three gold medals on the final day in the 400m relays and women’s long jump enabled USA to take a slight lead over Jamaica in the final medals standings of the 12th IAAF World Championships concluded at Olympiastadion in Berlin last night.

Though the glory earned by the ‘Jamaican Jaguar’ Usain Bolt could not be emulated, the Americans regained their lost prestige to a greater extent with the medal harvest they had on the final day of the nine-day competition in the German capital.

On the penultimate day of the meet, Jamaican surged ahead with both the men’s and women’s 4 x 100m gold medals with the fastest man on earth Bolt and Shilly-Ann Fraser piloting their teams to victory. But Jamaica could not make a clean sweep in the relays as expected as USA came back strongly to win both the men’s and women’s 4 x 400m relays.

Triple gold medallist in women’s 200m, Allyson Felix did a blistering second lap to join Debbie Dunn, Lashinda Demus and Sanya Richards as theUSA team clocked this year’s world?s leading timing of three minutes, 17.83 seconds. Jamaica finished second for the silver medal with a season’s best 3:21.15.

Minutes later in the final event of the world’s greatest athletic extravaganza, USA’s men’s 4 x 400m relay team clocked two minutes and 57.86 seconds - the year’s world’s leading performance, to take the gold medal. The victorious team comprised Angelo Taylor, Jeremy Wariner, Kerron Clement and LaShawn Merritt. Great Britain won the silver with a season’s best 3:00.53.

In the past, women’s long jump has been a brightest event for the USA when Marion Jones was at her brilliant best - her only field event beside the sprints. Here in Berlin, USA won the gold medal of the same event but with a different athlete - Brittney Reese.

Her jump of 7.10m is this year’s world’s leading performance. Russian Tatyana Lebedeva won the silver with a season best 6.97m.

The 22-year-old Reese became the third American woman in the history of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics to win the long jump. “It sounds good,” Reese said at the thought of her being the World champion.

“And for me to get it so young, I am just so excited.” Despite her young age, Reese was a finalist two years ago at the Osaka World Championships and at the Beijing Olympic Games last summer.

Reese is the third youngest champion in the history of the event following on inaugural champion and German national legend Heike Drechsler (who competed under her maiden name Daute in Helsinki 1983) who won her first title aged 18 and compatriot Tianna Madison who was a surprise winner four years ago when aged 20.

Her effort today was the longest winning mark since Drechsler’s second World title in Stuttgart 1993. “Today I felt a lot better than in the qualifying round.

I went back and looked at some of my jumps from Eugene, Oregon (where she took the US title) and saw that I needed more speed. So I got to work on speed,? she explains of her preparation following her automatic qualifying jump at 6.78 two days ago.

“I have been losing sleep,” she commented on her title. “This is the way I wanted it to be. People were saying I couldn’t come through to the final but I knew I had it in me.” Reese took the lead with her very first attempt at 6.92, a mark which was challenged by defending World champion Lebedeva only.

The 33-year-old former Olympic and three-time World champion Russian actually surpassed that mark with her second round 6.97 which prompted Reese to respond with her eventual winner with her very next try.

Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia looked as if he had left himself open to defeat in the 5,000m metres, by doing the majority of the leading at too leisurely a pace.

But Bekele obviously wanted to do it the hard way ‘firing up with a kilometre to go, but left it’ till the last lap, even the final 200m.

Defending champion, and most experienced man in the field, Bernard Lagat had run cannily, and was poised on Bekele?s shoulder, with half a lap left. Lagat duly kicked past into the straight, but Bekele was equal to the challenge, and eased away to victory in 13:17.09, punching the air in an unprecedented display of satisfaction as he crossed the line.

He had run the last lap in 53.81sec, to complete a grand long distance double, - adding the 5,000m title to the 10,000m gold he won earlier in the week, the first man in championships history to double. Lagat won silver, to go with his 1500m bronze, in 13:17.33, and bronze went to James Kwalia Chepkirui of Qatar, in 13:17.78.

In the women’s marathon, held earlier in the day through the city centre, the favourites gradually fell away (literally in the case of Dire Tune) from a large group at 25 kilometres, when Nailiya Yulamanova of Russia put in a lengthy surge.

Within five kilometres, she only had Bai Xue of China, Yoshimi Ozaki of Japan, and Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia for company.

But at a drinks station, the Russian slowed drastically, and started jogging, clutching her stomach. She eventually finished eighth.

Olympic bronze medallist Zhou Chunxiu of China began a late surge, and came within 100 metres of the leading trio before they broke up with two kilometres to run, with coincidentally a run for home by her colleague, Bai.

It was good enough to get rid of first Mergia then Ozaki. Bai won in 2:25.15, with Ozaki taking silver with 2.25.25, and Mergia the bronze in 2:25.32.

China won the World Marathon Cup team competition, with Japan in second and Russia, third.

South Africa’s Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, the oldest man in the men’s field won the 800m in 1:45.29. Off at a slow pace, partly due to ten men contesting the final, Mulaudzi made the break on the final bend, and hung on to beat fast finishing defending champion Alfred Yego of Kenya, who took silver, and 1500 metres winner, Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain, who took bronze, though both ran 1:45.45.

Andreas Thorkildsen , with a mighty throw of 89.59m in his second attempt, won the men’s javelin throw gold. The Norwegian became Olympic, World and European champion concurrently.

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