One gold gave the US a record-breaking haul at the World Athletics Championships Sunday. For Britain and Kenya, it averted utter humiliation.
Olympic and world 400m champion Jeremy Wariner brought home the baton in the 1,600m relay, the last event of the championship, to give the US its 14th gold medal, breaking the record it set at the Stuttgart championships in 1993.
Earlier, Britain's hard-luck marathon runner Paula Radcliffe won her first major title and Benjamin Limo dented Ethiopia's long-distance domination on the track.
PHOTO: EPA
Also, Moroccan-born Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain clinched an unprecedented middle distance double, adding the 800m to his 1,500m title by holding off Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy on the home stretch.
After failing to reach the final at last year's Olympics, this was his breakthrough competition.
"I learned from my mistakes in Athens," the 25-year-old Ramzi said.
PHOTO: AFP
Limo had the weight of Kenya on his shoulders but still managed to rush past Ethiopia's Sileshi Sihine on the home straight to win Kenya's only gold, still a huge disappointment for the African nation.
"I knew the last lap would be high speed, and I still felt OK," said Limo, who later said he would name his son, who was born on Monday, Helsinki.
Cuban Olympic champion Osleidys Menendez set a javelin world record of 71.70m on her first throw, improving on her old mark by 16cm, to win the gold.
She was the third woman to win US$160,000 for setting a world record and winning gold. Olimpiada Ivanova set one in the 20km walk and fellow Russian Yelena Isinbayeva added another in the pole vault.
On a good day for Russia, 400m hurdles champion Yuliya Pechonkina won a second gold as the leadoff woman for her country's 1,600m relay squad.
In the women's 1,500m, Russia thought it reigned supreme with a triple, led by defending champion Tatyana Tomashova, but runner-up Yuliya Chizhenko was disqualified for impeding pre-race favorite Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain.
In the worst high jump competition in world championship history, Yuriy Krymarenko of Ukraine won the gold by clearing 2.32m.
A mere 2.29m was enough for Victor Moya of Cuba and Yaroslav Rybakov of Russia to share silver.
Radcliffe is already world record holder in the marathon, but what she really craved was a major title.
Head bobbing as ever, she thrived in damp, cool English-summer weather and led for almost the whole race before finishing well ahead of Catherine Ndereba of Kenya and Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania.
"It was my plan to keep a good pace going," said Radcliffe, who finished in a championship-record of 2 hours, 20 minutes, 57 seconds.
Gone were the tears and heartbreak from the Athens Olympics, where she came in as favorite only to drop out of both the marathon and 10,000m. And she was dogged by doubts in Helsinki after she finished ninth in the 10,000m.
This time, her smile was flashing as she crossed the line and clasped her hands over her head, redemption finally delivered.
"A lot a things went wrong in Athens. I was a lot more confident here," Radcliffe said.
And while the US was wallowing in gold, Britain and Kenya wallowed in misery for most of the championships, without any win until Radcliffe and Limo came through on the final day.
It pushed Britain up from 30th in the medal rankings to 15th, way behind the dominating Americans. It highlighted the work ahead for Britain, which stages the 2012 Olympics in London.
Kenya finished 10th in the standings, humbled in comparison with African rival Ethiopia, which was third with three golds and nine overall.
The Russians were second with six golds and 20 overall, compared to the 25 overall of the US.
men's 5,000m
Benjamin Limo came to the world athletics championships looking for a gold medal.
He got it, and found a name for his newborn -- "Helsinki."
Limo sprinted away from the leading pack with half a lap to go Sunday and secured his first major victory in the men's 5,000m race in 13 minutes, 32.55 seconds.
"I'm very proud of this gold medal," Limo said. "My son was born on Monday, and it is obvious that I will name him `Helsinki.'"
Sileshi Sihine of Ethiopia was second in 13:32.81, followed by Craig Mottram of Australia in 13:32.96.
It was Kenya's first gold medal of these championships. The African nation also won two silvers and four bronze medals.
"We just wanted to win a medal for Kenya, and hopefully a gold one," Limo said. "The plans went very well, although I did not expect to win today. All I need now is to win a medal also in the Olympics."
Sihine said he thought the race would have been different if the Olympic silver medalist in the 5,000m race, Kenenisa Bekele, had competed. Bekele won the men's 10,000m title last week but passed on the chance at the double.
"I did expect the Kenyans to be strong, but I did not think Limo will win," Sihine said.
For Mottram, a lifeguard from Melbourne, Australia, it was his first podium finish in the 5,000m at a major competition.
African runners, mostly from Kenya and Ethiopia, have dominated the sport in recent years and had posted eight of the top 10 times coming into the race.
But Mottram said he expected non-African runners to begin challenging their dominance.
"I don't think this race is any special message," he said. "I think the whole season's been a big message to a lot of people around the world and a lot of African runners and a lot of European runners that it can be done."
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