By John Bagratuni Sep 4, 2011, 8:01 GMT
Daegu, South Korea - Usain Bolt of Jamaica shook off his 100 metres false-start disaster with the fourth-fastest time in 200m history for world championship gold on Saturday.
The biggest name in the sport got out of the blocks without a hitch and defended his title in 19.40 seconds ahead of American Walter Dix and Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre.
The winning time was the fourth best ever over the distance, with only Michael Johnson (19.32) and Bolt himself (19.30 in 2008, 19.19 in 2009) faster in world record runs.
Bolt was disqualified from the 100m final on Sunday for false-starting in what arguably was the biggest shock in the history of the worlds.
Sally Pearson of Australia became the fourth fastest 110m hurdler in an emphatic run to gold and Kenya assured itself of a record medal haul at the worlds when Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop won the 1,500m from countryman Silas Kiplagat.
Russia's Anna Chicherova got her first major high jump title on countback against two-times reigning champ Blanka Vlasic of Croatia, Matthias de Zordo ambushed holder and Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway to win javelin gold for Germany while the United States repeated the 4x400m relay women's title.
Bolt showed his class on Saturday, passed Dix coming out of the turn and never looked back en route to victory, after which he engaged in the full programme of his popular show-boating in front of a screaming Daegu crowd.
Dix got silver as in the 100m in 19.70 seconds and Lemaitre took bronze in a national record 19.80 seconds.
While not as sharp this year in his comeback from an injury-plagued 2010 season, Bolt was nonetheless favoured to repeat his title trebles from the 2008 Olympics and 2009 worlds before the 100m shock.
Bolt has another gold medal chance in Sunday's championship finale as part of the 4x100m relay.
After having already lowered her personal best in the semis, Pearson smashed the field again in the hurdles final with an emphatic run to the gold medal in 12.28 seconds, two tenths faster than her best before Saturday. Danielle Carruthers won a photo-finish against fellow-American Olympic champion Dawn Harper, with both on 12.47.
Kiprop was unstoppable on the home straight for the first 1,500m Kenyan world title in 3:35.69 minutes. Kiplagat had 3:35.92 and Matthew Centrowitz took bronze for the United States in 3:36.08.
Kenya has now won six gold, five silver and three bronze for 14 medals, with seven events left in Daegu. The nation's previous best haul was 5-3-5 at the 2007 edition.
In the high jump, the season leader Chicherova cleared every height including 2.03m on her first attempt before failing three times on 2.05m.
But Vlasic, who had almost withdrawn with a thigh injury, missed once on 2.00m and a personal season best 2.03m before also faltering at 2.05m. She had to settle for silver despite reaching the milestone of 100 competitions over 2.00. Antonietta di Matteo di Martino of Italy got bronze with 2.00m.
The US led from start to finish in the relay to win in a 2011 world lead 3:18.09 from Jamaica (3:18.71) and Russia (3:19.36) for the same order as in 2009.
De Zordo shocked the opposition with a season-best 86.27m in his first attempt. The 90-metres thrower Thorkildsen salvaged silver in the fourth attempt with 84.78m and bronze went to Cuba's Guillermo Martinez with 84.30m.
In the morning, Sergey Bakulin completed Russia's sweep of the walk world titles as in 2009 with 50km gold, taking his first big title in 3 hours 41 minutes 24 seconds on a course in downtown Daegu. from compatriot world record holder Denis Nitzegorodov and Australia's Jared Tallent.
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