Tyson Gay completed a golden triple by leading the United States to the title of the men's 4X100 meters relay while his compatriot Allyson Felix won her second trophy from the women's relay at the world championships here on Saturday.
Gay, winners of 100m and 200m, set up anchor Leroy Dixon for the gold in 37.78 seconds. Jamaica, led by 100m world record holder Asafa Powell, finished second and Britain won the bronze.
Only U.S. track legend Carl Lewis and Maurice Greene got the trebles before. Lewis achieved it in 1983 and 1987 and Greene repeated the feat in 1999.
"It feels great because I look up to the others guys (Lewis and Greene)," said Gay. "I didn't come to the championships thinking about three gold medals. At the same time I think that's why I got it accomplished, because I came here to have a good time."
"It means a lot. The 4x100 meters really put the icing on the cake," he said. "This was the finest medal I got because I got to get the medal with my team-mates."
The United States took away three out of five gold medals offered on Saturday. Brad Walker won the pole vault by clearing 5.86 meters, beating France's Romain Mesnil on a countback. The third place went to Germany's Danny Ecker with 5.81.
Felix, who won the 200m on Friday, helped the U.S. to take the relay victory in 41.98 seconds, 0.03 seconds ahead of Jamaica. Belgium surprised all by winning the bronze.
With one day to go, the U.S. team topped the medal standings with 11 gold, four silver and seven bronze, followed by Russia with 4-7-2 and Kenya with 3-2-5.
The day's other two gold medals went to two Olympic champions, Roman Sebrle of Czech Republic in decathlon and Meseret Defar of Ethiopia in women's 5,000m respectively.
Sebrle, also the world record holder, collected 8676 points for the gold, followed by Maurice Smith of Jamaica in 8644 and Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakstan in 8586.
Defar, the world record holder, clocked 14 minutes and 57.91 seconds. Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot was second with 0.59 seconds later and her compatriot Priscah Jepleting Cherono won bronze.
"I achieved the world record and I wanted the gold medal. Finally, I am the world champion," Defar said.
Source: Xinhua
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