Jamaican relay quartet set up a world record

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from South Korea

Invincible Jamaican sprinters accounted for the only world record broken at the 13th IAAF World Championships which concluded in Daegu Stadium here today. The Jamaican quartet made sure that the Daegu World Championship reaches its climax on the final day, shattering the World record in the 4x100m relay, clocking 37.04 seconds in the final event of the nine-day World athletic extravaganza on Sunday night.

Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake and the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt teamed to erase the previous mark of 37.10 set by another Jamaican squad at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Men’s 200m gold medallist Bolt belt down the home straight in splendid isolation, nothing to beat but the World record 37.10 Jamaica had set in winning the 2008 Olympic final. Though there had been three new World Championships records and 17 world’s leading performances this year were registered during the Daegu World Championships, the only world record to be broken was in the men’s 4 x 100m relay.

Nightmare continues

The nightmare continued for USA, which ran a world-leading time in the heats but then failed to complete the final as Darvis Patton collided with Britain’s anchor, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, as he came in to make the final change to Walter Dix. Patton sprawled on the track, tried unavailingly to get up, and watched despairingly as the rest of the field set off on the final leg. Great Britain & Northern Ireland failed to finish the race. The misfortune for USA and Great Britain handed the silver medal to France, Teddy Tinmar, Christophe Lemaitre, Yannick Lesourd and Jimmy Vicault getting the baton around in 38.20.

The bronze medal went to St Kitts and Nevis, a finalist for the first time, and including the ageless Kim Collins, the individual 100 metres bronze medallist, in its squad.

But the Jamaican women could not emulate the feat of their men’s team though they set a new national record timing of 41.70 seconds to take the silver in 4 x 400m final. They were well beaten by the USA, which clocked the world’s leading timing this year – 41.56 seconds, to secure the gold medal. Ukraine won the bronze with their season’s best 42.51.

American Christian Taylor accounted for the men’s triple jump gold with this year’s world’s leading leap of 17.96m, well ahead of Britain’s Philips Idowu who had 17.77 to take the bronze. Taylor’s team mate Will Claye had a personal best 17.50m to win the bronze.

Britain’s Mohamed Farah warmed up for next year’s London Olympics by winning men’s 5,000m gold medal, vanquishing the traditional Kenyan and Ethiopian dominance.

Having finished only seventh at the last World Championships and suffered a first round exit at Beijing 2008 Olympics, the European champion beat all odds to clock 13 minutes and 23.36 seconds to secure the gold medal. In the second place for the silver was American Mernard Lagat in 13:23.64. Ethiopian Dejen Gebremeskel, returning a timing of 13:23.92 won the bronze.

But the biggest upset of the final day’s action at the 203-nation championship was the fall of world record holder Betty Heidler in women’s hammer throw. She joined the unfortunate lot of would record holders to miss their respective gold medals at the Daegu 2011 World Championships, that included Jamaican Usain Bolt in men’s 100m and Russian Yelena Isinbayeva in women’s pole vault.

Russian Tatyana Lysenko led from the front to cause an upset and defeat Heidler in a high class women’s hammer throw final which witnessed three competitors throw beyond 75m - for the first time in World Championships history. Lysenko richly deserved her gold medal after registering the three longest throws in the competition, which included her season’s best 77.13m which took her to the title.

German Heidler, who has been the undisputed women’s hammer throw champion remaining unbeaten in all finals since March, simply could not reproduce the form which took her to the World record of 79.42m in May and had to settle for a second World silver medal with a best of 76.06m. China’s Wenxiu Zhang plundered her second World bronze with a first round 75.03m in what was her fifth world hammer final. The Chinese athlete had also climbed the third tier of the podium at the 2008 Olympics.

Former World record holder Tatyana Lysenko powered the hammer out to a season’s best 76.80m – exactly 1.00m shy of her lifetime best. The defending champion Anita Wlodarczyk – who has endured a troubled year through injury – hurled the hammer out to a season’s best 73.56m to take third.

The final round was also a slight disappointment as there was no change to the lead five positions, both Heidler and a triumphant Lysenko ending their competition with fouls. In a further couple of historical footnotes; Zalina Marghieva finished eighth with a best of 70.27m to secure a best ever world Championships finish for Moldova.

Kenya dominates in men’s marathon

Earlier in the morning, Kenya beat their arch rivals Ethiopia to secure the gold and silver medals of the men’s marathon. Competing under cool conditions in Daegu, Abel Kirui became the third competitor to successfully defend a marathon title after a convincing victory around a loop course in the city streets of Daegu.

Running only in his first marathon of the year after failing to finish in London in April, made no mistake and made his presence first felt right from the start. Leading through 20km in one hour, one minute and 42 seconds, he extended his lead clocking 1:05:07 by the half way mark. It was a roller coast display by Kirui at the end to win by the biggest ever margin of 2:28 in a time of 2:07:38 – his season’s best performance. Compatriot Vincent Kipruto won the silver in 2:10.06. Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa who clocked 2:10:32 took the bronze behind the two Kenyans.

Kirui not originally selected for the Athletics Kenya team but recalledfollowing withdrawals, stamped his authority on the race when making a definitive break around 27km and with a superb 14:17 split reaching 30km in 1:30:43. That saw the 29-year-old enjoying a very healthy lead of 11sec ahead of 2010 Prague champion Eliud Kiptanui who would drift backwards to finish sixth and Lilesa whose 2:05:23 in Rotterdam last year was the fastest ever by a 20-year-old.

Change in coaching

It was a change in coaching that had let to Kirui’s latest success, especially to make a sensational comeback after the London debacle. “After failing in London, we had to have a conversation,” his manager Valentijn Trouw said.

Trouw discovered that Kirui, an exceedingly outgoing and friendly man, had too many distractions when he trained near his home in Kapsabet. He would see many visitors, and lost his training focus attending to his wife, Stella, and his two children, David Kipchumba and Joylin.

Trouw suggested that Kirui shift his training venue to the Iten/Eldoret area and move to the renowned Italian Marathon coach, Renato Canova. That paid rich dividends. “I changed my training, moved from where I used to stay in Kapsabet, went to Iten for my serious training because sometimes training at home doesn’t give acceptable results,” the marathon gold medallist said.

USA finished on top of the final medals standings with 12 gold, 8 silver and 5 bronze, ahead on second-placed Russia with nine gold, four silver and six bronze. In third place was Kenya with seven gold, six silver and four bronze, followed by Jamaica, Germany and Great Britain.

DAEGU, Sunday