Gharib pulled away from Spain's Julio Rey as they entered the stadium and set a championship record of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 31 seconds to win gold in the second marathon of his career. Rey was seven seconds behind to take the silver and Stefano Baldini of Italy won the bronze in 2:09.14.
Dibaba was the world junior cross-country champion and is the 5,000 world junior record holder. She won the gold medal in 14 minutes, 51.72 seconds. European champion Marta Dominguez of Spain took silver for the second consecutive time, finishing in 14:52.26. Edith Masai of Kenya was third in 14:52.30.
"I can't believe it," Dibaba said. "It's my first world championship and winning the title is an amazing thing for me."
Barber, who had won silver in the heptathlon, soared 6.99m to grab the gold ahead of European champion Tatyana Kotova of Russia. Kotova and Barber went into the final series tied at 6.74, but the Russian would have won the title because she had a longer second distance.
But Barber uncorked a magnificent final effort to delight the 54,134 fans at the Stade de France.
Anju Bobby George gave India its first medal in the history of the championships by taking bronze at 6.70.
In the javelin, Tatyana Shikolenko of Russia took the silver with a throw of 63.28. Steffi Nerius of Germany was third at 62.70.
RSS