Saturday, August 22, 2009

Felix completes 200m treble


America's Allyson Felix cruised to her third straight 200 metres title in the World Championships in Berlin.

But her compatriot Jeremy Wariner failed to secure his own hat-trick.

Felix clocked 20.02 seconds in the Olympic Stadium to beat Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica into second, with Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas in third.

"It is very special for me to win here in Berlin," said Felix. "I've worked really hard and defended my title and I cannot ask for more.

"All my titles are different but this one happened in a stadium with a lot of history so this is definitely something special for me.

"I feel like I got a decent start, Veronica got a phenomenal start but I was very confident about my strength."

Wariner, who lost his Olympic title to LaShawn Merritt in Beijing, again had to play second fiddle to his compatriot as Merritt ran 44.06secs, the fastest time in the world this year.

Wariner took silver in 44.60, a season's best, with Renny Quow of Trinidad taking the bronze.

Merritt said: "Wariner is a great champion but I really wanted it. At 300m I felt good and at 350m I knew I had won the race, I just needed to bring it home.

"I am planning on getting better and better every year. Only the sky is the limit."

Wariner said: "I feel disappointed because I wanted to defend my title. It was the slowest season for me but the next is going to be different, I guarantee."

Yaroslav Rybakov, who took bronze and silver in the previous two world championships, finally got his hands on gold in the men's high jump.

Rybakov cleared 2.32m with his first attempt to take the title on countback from Kyriakos Ioannou of Cyrpus, with Germany's Raul Spank and Sylwester Bednarek of Poland sharing bronze.

Australia's Dani Samuels won the women's discus with a best of 65.44m in the fifth round, Cuba's Yarelis Barrios snatching silver with 65.31m in the final round wtih long-time leader Nicoleta Grasu of Romania taking silver with 65.20m.

The United States were later disqualified from the 4x100m after the British team brought an illegal changeover to the attention of officials.

The baton change between Shawn Crawford and Darvis Patton on the third and fourth legs was ruled to be illegal but the US team have launched an appeal.

The Americans' appeal was subsequently turned down by officials, boosting Britain's chances of claiming a medal in tomorrow evening's final.

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