Jamaica’s two-time Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown stormed to victory in the women’s 200m Friday, denying American Allyson Felix a historic fourth consecutive world title. Campbell-Brown flew out of the blocks and although Carmelita Jeter pushed her hard down the home straight, the Jamaican found the extra pace she needed to cross the line first in a season’s best of 22.22sec.
After her impressive victory the 29-year-old trained her sights on the one medal missing from her glittering collection of sprint titles – the Olympic 100m title. Jeter, bidding for a double after winning the 100m in South Korea, won silver in 22.37sec and Felix, who never looked like catching the powerful Campbell-Brown, had to be content with bronze in a time of 22.42. Campbell-Brown, who finished second behind Jeter in the 100m final in Daegu, won the 200m Olympic gold in 2004 and 2008. She took silver at the 2007 and 2009 worlds and won the 100m world title in 2007.
Cheruiyot claims double after world 5000m win: Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot claimed the women’s 5000-10,000m double after winning gold in the shorter race at the world championships on Friday. The Kenyan defending champion timed 14min 55.36sec, with compatriot Sylvia Kibet taking silver (14:56.21) and Meseret Defar of Ethiopia claiming bronze (14:56.94).
Cheruiyot becomes only the second woman to achieve this particular distance double after Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba at the Helsinki worlds in 2005. The diminutive Kenyan, who has been unbeaten at any distance on the track this year, wrapped up the win with a punishing 58.68sec final lap to take the sting out of her rivals.
Kibet produced a startling sprint for the line to nip in before Defar and make it another 1-2 for Kenya, further confirming the east African country’s status as the dominant nation in middle distance and long distance running.
Cheruiyot and Kibet’s medal showings follow medals cleansweeps in the women’s 10,000m and marathon, and golds for David Rudisha in the men’s 800m, and an Ezekiel Kemboi-led 1-2 in the men’s 3000m steeplechase.
Pistorius ends world odyssey with historic silver: Oscar Pistorius’ history-making participation at the world championships ended with a silver medal after his teammates guided South Africa to second in the men’s 4x400m relay on Friday. The controversial ‘Blade Runner’, who runs with carbon fibre prosthetic running blades and was the first amputee to compete at the worlds, finished last in his semi-final heat in the individual 400m. He was omitted from the relay team for the final, having run the first leg in qualifiers on Thursday, when South Africa finished third quickest. “Haven’t been included in the final for the SA men’s 4x400m. Pretty Guttered,” Pistorius said earlier on his Twitter account. As a relay squad member, however, Pistorius will mark a memorable championships by returning home with a world silver medal in his pocket after his teammates battled off Jamaica for second behind a strong US quartet.
