Bolt steals limelight, Russian topples record
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Xinhua, September 3, 2011
The Daegu worlds on Friday saw a fierce and exciting battle for the women's javelin throw title where a Russian girl produced a new championships record, but it was Usian Bolt, competing the 200m semifinals, who received most screams.
The world's fastest man from Jamaica, eased into the men's 200m final with a time of 20.31 seconds.
Despite the surprising and sensational disqualification on Sunday's night in the men's 100m final, the 25-year-old man seemed very much unaffected and relaxed.
In both the semifinal and Friday morning's qualifying round, he continued to entertain spectators at the Daegu stadium in his usual fashion. With the camera on him and the in-stadium huge screens featuring him, Bolt used his hands to sort out his hair style, pointed to left and right, and then shaked his head.
The crowd responded with thunderous cheers and hundreds of South Korean girls screamed badly loudly.
The women's javelin throw final was another highlight of the night session.
Olympic silver medalist Maria Abakumova, 25, and world record holder Barbora Spotakova, 30, had a fierce battle for the gold medal, which saw the Russian and Czech pushed each other to a longer throw in five minutes.
Abakumova made a massive throw of 71.99 meters right after Spotakova produced 71.58m in her fifth attempt to overtake Abakumova's then-leading mark of 71.25m.
With the new championships record and her personal best mark, Abakumova, just back from a foot injury, secured her first world title after taking a bronze medal in Berlin two years ago.
"I feel double pleasure today. The first reason is that I achieved such a great result and the second because I managed to get over my foot injury," said the Russian girl who ran a victory lap to celebrate.
"I was in a bad position before the championships. I was even thinking whether to fly to Daegu. Almost for a month I had problems with my leg -- I hardly could walk. I was really afraid what will happen in the competition. Thanks to my family and the people who helped me I managed to come back in shape," she added.
Spotakova, holding a world record of 72.28m, also showed her best shape here after suffering injury in the past couple of seasons, taking the silver with her season best of 71.58m.
The evening capper was a thriller as well, with the quartet of Greg Nixon, Bershawn Jackson, Angelo Taylor and Lashawn Merritt taking the gold for the United States. The anchor Merritt, the 400m silver medalist, received the baton in third place behind Jamaica and South Africa but managed to pounce near the top of the homestretch to cross the line in 2:59.31. South Africa took silver and Jamaican the bronze.
In the women's 200m sprint, however, Daegu's "cover curse" in delivered a knock-out blow to U.S. runners Carmelita Jeter, the 100m winner here and Allyson Felix, the three-time world champion, who both appeared on Friday's program cover.
Jamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown, twice Olympic champion, finally won her first ever world title in the distance in 22.22 seconds after losing twice to Felix in Osaka and Berlin Worlds.
As Felix failed in seeking her fourth world title in a row, Dwight Phillips of the United States, however, collected a phenomenal fourth title in the men's long jump, matching the feat of Cuban legend Ivan Pedroso. His second round 8.45 meters was a season's best, which easily turned back Australia's world leader Mitchell Watt's 8.33m.
"This medal is the most important of my four gold medals, because I had lots of adversity this year," said Phillips, who also took bronze in 2007. "I had injuries all year. Nobody believed I could this, only my coach and my family believed."
The women's 5,000m race ended much the same way as in Berlin, with Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot leading her Kenyan compatriot Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet and Ethiopian rival Meseret Defar across the finish line.
The big difference this time was that Cheruiyot, the defending champion, has completed a double champion as she had won the 10,000m race six days ago. The 27-year-old is just the second woman to turn the trick, following Tirunesh Dibaba in 2005.
German youngster David Storl collected a wholly unexpected victory in the men's shot put, outdoing himself twice in the final after improving his career best to 21.60 meters in the qualifying round.
With a 21.78m effort in his final throw, the 21-year-olds added the world crown to his world youth and junior titles.
In the medal tally, the United States led by nine golds, five silvers and two bronzes. Kenya followed with five golds, four silvers and three bronzes thanks to their distance runners. Russia is the third with five golds, three silvers and five bronzes.
