Usain Bolt capped a memorable World Championships by winning a third gold yesterday as anchor of Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team, while the US were disqualified to hand China a shock silver.
Bolt ran a blistering final leg at a packed National Stadium, hurtling through the line in 37.36 seconds after teammates Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell and Nickel Ashmeade had successfully got the baton around.
The US quartet of 100m bronze and silver medalists Trayvon Bromell and Justin Gatlin, and fellow finalists Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers, were initially awarded silver before being disqualified over a botched final handover that strayed beyond the passover limit.
Photo: Reuters
China, headed by individual 100m finalist Su Bingtian, delighted the home crowd when they were upgraded to silver in 38.01 seconds, while Canada moved up to bronze, running 38.13 seconds.
Racing in lane four, Carter’s opening leg for Jamaica saw him slip slightly down on Bromell. Powell ran his second leg in full chase of Gatlin in lane six.
Ashmeade took up the chase for Jamaica around the back bend, but Gay had his beating and it looked as if Bolt would not have a genuine chance of catching the Americans.
Photo: EPA
However, there was a disaster as Gay’s handover to Rodgers misfired and went outside the baton-passing area, leading to the US team being disqualified.
Ashmeade had no such problem with his own baton pass to Bolt, and suddenly the towering Jamaican had a clear run at the line.
Straight into the lead with Rodgers searching in thin air for the baton behind him, Bolt opened up all cylinders to race through for victory at what could be his last world championships.
5,000 METERS
Mo Farah became the first man to win back-to-back world distance doubles when he stormed to 5,000m victory.
The Briton, rocked this season by doping allegations against his coach, put the row behind him as he produced a devastating final 80m to romp home in 13 minutes, 50.38 seconds.
Kenyan Caleb Ndiku took silver after making a valiant break with 800m to run. Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet took bronze.
The victory for Farah, who won the 10,000m on the opening weekend, seals a unique “triple double” of distance titles at consecutive world championships and the London Olympics.
“Tonight I had to dig deep, it came down to the last 100 metres,” Farah said. “I felt a bit tired going through the rounds and coming back again.”
“It’s difficult as everybody has got great speed and there are a lot of guys capable of winning. They went for it. The important thing was to win the race and I did that,” he said.
Farah’s victory gave him an unprecedented seventh successive distance win at world championships and Olympics, stretching back to his 5,000m gold at Daegu in 2011.
DECATHLON
Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton thrilled the Bird’s Nest stadium crowd with a lung-busting 1,500m race as he broke his own world record to retain his world title.
The American threw a season’s best 63.63m in the javelin before clocking 4 minutes, 17.52 seconds in the 1,500m to finish with a new world-best total of 9,045 points, eclipsing his previous mark by six points.
Canada’s Damian Warner took silver behind Eaton, posting a national record of 8,695 points and German Rico Freimuth took bronze with a personal best of 8,561.
Eaton led from wire to wire after running 10.23 seconds in the opening 100m before solid efforts in the long jump and shot put, and a high jump best of 2.01m.
His sizzling world decathlon best of 45 seconds flat in the 400m handed him the chance to challenge his previous record of 9,039.
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