Beijing: LaShawn Merritt produced a perfectly-judged final leg to lead the United States to a sixth successive world 4x400 meters relay title and bring down the curtain on the 15th world athletics championships on Sunday.
The Olympic 400m champion, who has been part of all six campaigns over the last decade, ran his leg in 44.16 and crossed the line for gold in two minutes 57.82 seconds, the best time of year.
Trinidad and Tobago, who led after the first three legs, took silver in a national record 2:58.20 and Britain piped Jamaica to third place in 2.58.51.
Merritt, who won silver in a thrilling 400m final earlier in the championships, will have been delighted to avoid the fate of the American 4x100m squad, who were disqualified after a botched exchange, while the women's 4x400 squad were piped by Jamaica earlier on Sunday.
It briefly looked as if Jamaica's men were going to triumph too when their anchor Javon Francis tore to the front on the back straight but he paid a heavy price for going too hard, too soon as he was caught on the line by Britain's Martyn Rooney in a photo-finish.
Jamaica stun US in 4x400 meters relay gold
The similarly red suited American and Trinidad and Tobago teams had dominated the race until Francis's explosive intervention Jamaica stunned the United States in the last women's track race of the world championships as Novlene Williams-Mills snatched the 4x400 meters relay gold by passing Francena McCorory in the final 10 meters of a thrilling race.
Jamaica had held a 15-metre lead over the United States at half-way, after strong runs by Christine Day and Shericka Jackson, only to see America's individual 400m champion, Allyson Felix deliver an astonishing leg to chase down and catch Stephenie Ann McPherson and hand over the stick for the anchor leg with a slight
lead.
Felix's leg of the relay was timed unofficially at 47.7sec but it was to prove in vain as Novlene Williams-Mills ran a shrewd final lap to overhaul a tiring Francena McCorory and win Jamaica's third relay gold medal of the Beijing championships, and her nation's seventh of the week.
Jamaica clocked 3min 19.13sec, to the United States' 3:19.44 with Britain taking bronze in 3:23.62.
Canada's Drouin wins high jump gold in sudden death
Canada's Derek Drouin won the men's high jump gold medal with a 2.34-metre clearance in a sudden-death finale at the world championships on Sunday.
Drouin went into a jump-off with defending champion Bogdan Bondarenko of Ukraine and China's Zhang Guowei after all three had identical cards -- no failures up to 2.33 meters but none able to clear 2.36.
After the trio had failed at 2.36 for a fourth time, the bar was lowered to 2.34.
The 25-year-old Drouin, a bronze medalist at the 2013 world championships, went first and cleared it before Bondarenko and Zhang both failed, sharing the silver medal.
The only other man to clear 2.33 meters was Qatar's Mutaz Barshim, the world leader and pre-championship favorite, but a failure with his first attempt at 2.29m meant that he did not make it into the jump-off and finished fourth.
After becoming Canada's first ever men's high jump world champion, Drouin said, "This is very exciting. It is really beautiful to own this title now.
"After my victory at the PanAm Games I did some good meetings, so I knew I was in good shape and this gave me a lot of confidence. I hoped to make a medal, but hoping for and making it actually happen are two different things.
"I was first on the line-up, that was good to keep the pressure on the field."
Despite being injured a month ago, Bondarenko was still upset at losing his world title so narrowly. "If somebody told me one month ago that I would get silver at the world championships, I would have been happy," he said.
"I was not in shape at the time and had to fight some injury but today it does not feel like that; I feel upset."
On a silver-lined final session for the home fans who had witnessed their 4x100m men's relay team receive their silver medals earlier and seen Lyu Huihui winning silver in the women's javelin in the Bird's Nest, Zhang apologized for not going one place better: "Today I was not able to give my very best performance, but I tried. I came second, which is also a good result," he said.
Germany's Molitor snatches gold with final throw
Germany's Katharina Molitor conjured up the longest throw of her career with the final throw of the competition to win a surprise javelin gold and deny hosts China a second title of the world athletics championships on Sunday.
The 31-year-old, who had never previously won a medal at a major championships and one of four Germans in the final, launched the javelin a world leading 67.69 meters with her sixth effort.
"I cannot really believe this," she said. "After my fifth throw, I thought, 'Maybe I can still improve a little bit'. I dreamed about that and now I have this new PB and world lead. Perfect."
"This is a first class feeling now. I still cannot believe it. I am so happy. This is fantastic! I have always dreamed about a medal, no matter the color."
Molitor's final throw relegated China's Lyu Huihui, who had led the way after an Asian record 66.13m with her fifth throw, to the silver medal position.
Lyu was nevertheless delighted with her first major medal and paid tribute to the noisy crowd at thee Bird's Nest Stadium.
"I am very excited about this silver medal, I was able to come back and to come back strong," said the 26-year-old.
"We had set a goal to do well here. The crowd here gave me wonderful support, they shouted "jia you" (go, go) for me and this helped me a lot."
South Africa's Sunette Viljoen, who had owned the previous best throw of the year, collected a second world bronze after her 2011 podium finish with 66.13m.
Ayana denies Dibaba with stunning 5,000m gold
Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana put on a stunning display of front-running to win the women's 5,000 meters by more than 17 seconds at the world championships on Sunday and deprive compatriot Genzebe Dibaba of an unprecedented double gold.
The 23-year-old powered away from Dibaba with four laps to go and led home an Ethiopian podium sweep in a championship record time of 14 minutes 26.83 seconds.
Dibaba, who was hoping to become the first woman to win both the 1,500m and 5,000m at the same world championships or Olympics, was piped at the line by compatriot Senbere Teferi, who took silver in 14.44.07.
"I had to win the gold medal," Ayana told reporters. "It was a hard race, a hard competition in general. It was great for our country that we won gold, silver and bronze."
The 24-year-old Dibaba, who was almost as dominant in the 1,500m on Tuesday as Ayana was in the 5,000m, went with her compatriot when she initially broke to the front of the field with seven laps to go.
After aggravating an injury during her 1,500m triumph, however, she was unable to stand the pace when Ayana moved up another gear.
To add insult to injury, the championship record Ayana bettered was set by bronze medalist Dibaba's sister Tirunesh at the 2005 world championships.
"My country won three medals, I can only be pleased about this," she said.
The Olympic 400m champion, who has been part of all six campaigns over the last decade, ran his leg in 44.16 and crossed the line for gold in two minutes 57.82 seconds, the best time of year.
Trinidad and Tobago, who led after the first three legs, took silver in a national record 2:58.20 and Britain piped Jamaica to third place in 2.58.51.
Merritt, who won silver in a thrilling 400m final earlier in the championships, will have been delighted to avoid the fate of the American 4x100m squad, who were disqualified after a botched exchange, while the women's 4x400 squad were piped by Jamaica earlier on Sunday.
It briefly looked as if Jamaica's men were going to triumph too when their anchor Javon Francis tore to the front on the back straight but he paid a heavy price for going too hard, too soon as he was caught on the line by Britain's Martyn Rooney in a photo-finish.
Jamaica stun US in 4x400 meters relay gold
The similarly red suited American and Trinidad and Tobago teams had dominated the race until Francis's explosive intervention Jamaica stunned the United States in the last women's track race of the world championships as Novlene Williams-Mills snatched the 4x400 meters relay gold by passing Francena McCorory in the final 10 meters of a thrilling race.
Jamaica had held a 15-metre lead over the United States at half-way, after strong runs by Christine Day and Shericka Jackson, only to see America's individual 400m champion, Allyson Felix deliver an astonishing leg to chase down and catch Stephenie Ann McPherson and hand over the stick for the anchor leg with a slight
Felix's leg of the relay was timed unofficially at 47.7sec but it was to prove in vain as Novlene Williams-Mills ran a shrewd final lap to overhaul a tiring Francena McCorory and win Jamaica's third relay gold medal of the Beijing championships, and her nation's seventh of the week.
Jamaica clocked 3min 19.13sec, to the United States' 3:19.44 with Britain taking bronze in 3:23.62.
Canada's Drouin wins high jump gold in sudden death
Canada's Derek Drouin won the men's high jump gold medal with a 2.34-metre clearance in a sudden-death finale at the world championships on Sunday.
After the trio had failed at 2.36 for a fourth time, the bar was lowered to 2.34.
The 25-year-old Drouin, a bronze medalist at the 2013 world championships, went first and cleared it before Bondarenko and Zhang both failed, sharing the silver medal.
The only other man to clear 2.33 meters was Qatar's Mutaz Barshim, the world leader and pre-championship favorite, but a failure with his first attempt at 2.29m meant that he did not make it into the jump-off and finished fourth.
After becoming Canada's first ever men's high jump world champion, Drouin said, "This is very exciting. It is really beautiful to own this title now.
"After my victory at the PanAm Games I did some good meetings, so I knew I was in good shape and this gave me a lot of confidence. I hoped to make a medal, but hoping for and making it actually happen are two different things.
"I was first on the line-up, that was good to keep the pressure on the field."
Despite being injured a month ago, Bondarenko was still upset at losing his world title so narrowly. "If somebody told me one month ago that I would get silver at the world championships, I would have been happy," he said.
"I was not in shape at the time and had to fight some injury but today it does not feel like that; I feel upset."
On a silver-lined final session for the home fans who had witnessed their 4x100m men's relay team receive their silver medals earlier and seen Lyu Huihui winning silver in the women's javelin in the Bird's Nest, Zhang apologized for not going one place better: "Today I was not able to give my very best performance, but I tried. I came second, which is also a good result," he said.
Germany's Molitor snatches gold with final throw
Germany's Katharina Molitor conjured up the longest throw of her career with the final throw of the competition to win a surprise javelin gold and deny hosts China a second title of the world athletics championships on Sunday.
The 31-year-old, who had never previously won a medal at a major championships and one of four Germans in the final, launched the javelin a world leading 67.69 meters with her sixth effort.
"I cannot really believe this," she said. "After my fifth throw, I thought, 'Maybe I can still improve a little bit'. I dreamed about that and now I have this new PB and world lead. Perfect."
"This is a first class feeling now. I still cannot believe it. I am so happy. This is fantastic! I have always dreamed about a medal, no matter the color."
Molitor's final throw relegated China's Lyu Huihui, who had led the way after an Asian record 66.13m with her fifth throw, to the silver medal position.
Lyu was nevertheless delighted with her first major medal and paid tribute to the noisy crowd at thee Bird's Nest Stadium.
"I am very excited about this silver medal, I was able to come back and to come back strong," said the 26-year-old.
"We had set a goal to do well here. The crowd here gave me wonderful support, they shouted "jia you" (go, go) for me and this helped me a lot."
South Africa's Sunette Viljoen, who had owned the previous best throw of the year, collected a second world bronze after her 2011 podium finish with 66.13m.
Ayana denies Dibaba with stunning 5,000m gold
The 23-year-old powered away from Dibaba with four laps to go and led home an Ethiopian podium sweep in a championship record time of 14 minutes 26.83 seconds.
Dibaba, who was hoping to become the first woman to win both the 1,500m and 5,000m at the same world championships or Olympics, was piped at the line by compatriot Senbere Teferi, who took silver in 14.44.07.
"I had to win the gold medal," Ayana told reporters. "It was a hard race, a hard competition in general. It was great for our country that we won gold, silver and bronze."
The 24-year-old Dibaba, who was almost as dominant in the 1,500m on Tuesday as Ayana was in the 5,000m, went with her compatriot when she initially broke to the front of the field with seven laps to go.
After aggravating an injury during her 1,500m triumph, however, she was unable to stand the pace when Ayana moved up another gear.
To add insult to injury, the championship record Ayana bettered was set by bronze medalist Dibaba's sister Tirunesh at the 2005 world championships.
"My country won three medals, I can only be pleased about this," she said.
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