American sprinter Tyson Gay won the most-anticipated 100 meters showdown against Asafa Powell while Jefferson Perez and Carolina Kluft both grabbed their third consecutive world crowns at the 11th world athletics championships on Sunday.
Perez of Ecuador won his third successive gold in the 20km race walk braving Osaka's sweltering heat humidity. But his winning time of 1:22:20 was five minutes slower than the world record he set in winning his first title in Paris 2003.
Originally penalized and disqualified, European champion Francisco Javier Fernandez of Spain was reinstated on appeal, and won the silver medal after passing Hatem Ghoula of Tunisia just a few meters away from the line. The bronze was a first for any North African countries.
Swede Kluft's winning streak since 2002 continued with a third world title. Despite being edged in a couple of events, Kluft never looked like being beaten, and that all-round excellence delivered her the victory in a personal best of 7, 032 points.
The second place total of 6,832 points was Ukrain's Lyudmila Blonska and Britain's Kelly Sotherton finished third with 6,510 points.
In the day's another final, New Zealand's Valerie Vili upset defending champion Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus on her final attempt to win the women's shot put gold medal.
Ostapchuk looked certain to lift a second straight world title with her first throw of 20.04 meters but the 22-year-old New Zealander heaved the year's best of 20.54m in the sixth round.
It prompted Vili, dressed in all black, to dash to the stands and celebrate with New Zealand fans a success which meant she was the only second non-European women's shot put champion since China's Huang Zhihong in 1993.
Powell, who holds the world record of 9.77 seconds, led the field after the start but Gay, also 24, surged past the Jamaican at over 60 meters, and Derrick Atkins of Bahamas at 80.
Gay, who came to the event with a world-leading 9.84 seconds, crossed the line first in 9.85. Atkins clocked a national record of 9.91, and Powell took bronze with 9.96.
"My gold medal feels so good and I am very proud of it," said a jubilant Gay.
The win is too sweet for Gay and the defeat is too bitter for Powell. Both of them are 24 years old.
"I am very disappointed," Powell said. "I was ready to go, but I made a couple of mistakes. My blocks stumbled and I could not accelerate well. That was planned to be my race because I'm in great shape, but small mistakes were the reason I could not realise my plan."
Gay is now looking to add a second gold in the 200m. And he even thought of taking the 100m world record away from Powell.
"For the 200 meters I will have to see what my body says. I really believe that one day the world record will be mine. This year, I would like to run against Asafa Powell again in one of the upcoming meetings."
Kluft's winning score placed her behind only one other heptathlete -- the legendary American Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Joyner-Kersee has the top six marks in the event with Kluft now the next name on the list.
"Well, I'm No. 1 today," Kluft said. "I'm not into looking at statistics and seeing what's in front of me. I'm just right here now and happy for my day."
"It's been tough, it's been major pressure on me just from myself and from the outside," she added. "I'm just happy to put it all together."
Kluft's total was also a European record, erasing the 18-year-old mark of 7,007 by Russian Nikitina Larisa.
The day also witnessed three defending champions crash out. With Ostapchuk losing in the shot, Zulia Calatayud went out in the semifinal stage of the women's 800m, and Bershawn Jackson nearly hit the deck and was also run out at the penultimate round of the men's 400m hurdles.
The only upset in the women's 100 meters quarter-finals was the disqualification for a false start of Susanthika Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka, who had been third fastest in the first round heats in the morning.
Merlene Ottey, 47, ran her 59th race in her 8th world championships, and clocked 11.66, for fourth place in the morning's heat. It wasn't good enough to qualify for the next round.
Source: Xinhua
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