Teenager Tirunesh Dibaba clinched an unprecedented long-distance sweep, beating three compatriots in the 5,000m in a championship-record time of 14 minutes, 38.59 seconds -- the second Ethiopian rout in a week.
Lauryn Williams added the 400m relay to her 100m gold, and Dwight Phillips won his second straight long jump title Saturday, allowing the US to match its best showing ever at the World Athletics Championships.
On a day made for golden doubles, 110m hurdles champion Ladji Doucoure was the leadoff man in the 400m relay for the French team, which surprised Trinidad and Tobago for gold. Britain took its first medal, a bronze. The US was eliminated in the heats.
PHOTO: AFP
Morocco's Jaouad Gharib defied stomach pains but still successfully defended his marathon title with a burst of speed to leave the opposition trailing with about 12km to go.
Williams, who won the 100m on Monday, ran a blazing anchor leg to win her second gold medal of this year's competition.
"I was sort of hoping for two gold medals all the way through," she said.
With her hair tied up in Mickey Mouse ears to match the tattoo on her thigh, Williams got the baton first and never let Olympic champion Jamaica get close over the final stretch, finishing in a season's leading 41.78 seconds. Belarus took bronze. Last year, Williams dropped in the baton in the final at the Olympics.
"There was a little added pressure after last year's mishap. I just wanted to get it around," Williams said.
Allyson Felix, the 200 champion, also could have won her second gold, but the coaches decided to stay with the team that ran Friday's heats.
"Allyson had the option of running and she wasn't very comfortable as the first leg," Williams said. "No one is upset abut not being able to run the relays."
Victory pushed the US to 13 golds, matching the championship record it set in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1993. It has 24 overall, two shy of the record set in Tokyo 1991.
It could have been more had the men's sprint relay team not dropped the baton in Friday's heats. Even worse, the women's 1,600 relay team was disqualified in the heats Saturday for multiple lane infractions.
Phillips blew away all opposition on his first jump, matching his 8.60mpersonal record and the biggest jump in the world over the past five years.
It didn't matter his five other attempts were fouls.
"I am happy I was able to come out here tonight and dominate the field," the Olympic champion said. "I had a personal goal of mine to win four world championship medals. This is No. 2 so I have two more to go."
Next up is the world record of 8.95.
"I have promised Mike Powell to break it. In the following competitions that is the only thing I am concentrating on," Phillips said.
Ingenious Geisha of Ghana took silver and Tommi Evila gave Finland its first medal in the competition with a bronze.
"It's nice to get a medal after all these days without any," 17-year-old fan Lina Schiffer said.
The performance won the biggest cheer of all from the near-capacity crowd of 40,000 at the Olympic Stadium.
Russia was second in the medal standings with five golds and 15 overall, and the Ethiopian sweep pushed the African nation into third with three golds and eight overall.
With 300m to go, Dibaba and her teammates burst away from the pack. Meseret Defar kept up with Dibaba until the final 50m, but could not withstand the teenager's final acceleration.
Dibaba's older sister, Ejegayehu, took bronze.
"I am very happy for the sweep. I wanted my teammates to run well, too. I am proud of Ethiopia and Africa," Tirunesh Dibaba said.
Dibaba didn't even need to win the 5,000m to have a superlative season, which started with an indoor world record over the distance in Boston in February.
She then added the cross-country long and short distance world titles before winning the 10,000m world title last weekend.
In the 400m hurdles, Yuliya Pechonkina kept her unbeaten outdoor record this year going, dipping under 53 seconds with a season-leading 52.90 to hold off Americans Lashinda Demus and Sandra Glover.
Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus won the shot put with a throw of 20.51m, beating Olga Ryabinkina of Russia and Valerie Vili of New Zealand.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS