Justin Gatlin swept away opposition to win the 100m sprint on Sunday and added the world championship title to his Olympic gold medal.
The overwhelming favourite didn’t even have to dip for the line to clock 9,88s and hold a massive .17 second margin over silver medalist Michael Frater of Jamaica. Defending champion Kim Collins was third, also in 10,05s.
”I had more left in the tank,” Gatlin said of his season’s best time.
Now, the American will go for the 200 title and the 400 relay to emulate the feat of compatriot Maurice Greene in 1999.
”My plan is going perfectly. The 200 is on my mind,” Gatlin said.
”Last year at the Olympics I was very high on my win in the 100, but this year I’m hungry for the 200 and relay. I want three gold medals.”
Performing on a tender ankle, Olympic champion Carolina Kluft fought back to beat France’s Eunice Barber in the heptathlon and retain her world titles.
The Swede, who strained her jumping ankle on the eve of the seven-event competition, capped a thrilling weekend by coming back on the final bend of the closing 800 to overtake Barber and clinch the title.
She fell to the ground and held her taped left ankle, savouring a famous victory. She won with a 6 887 points, followed by Barber with 6 824. Ghana’s Margaret Simpson took bronze.
”It was fantastic, absolutely fantastic,” Kluft said.
Kluft lost badly in the first two events but overtook the 2001 champion on Sunday and crossed the finish line of the 800m to the rousing cheers of the Nordic crowd at the 40 000-capacity Olympic stadium.
Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia set the first world record of the competition earlier on Sunday, clinching $160 000 to win the 20km walk.
Under a setting sun that gave the skies over the stadium a golden glow, and with the national flags hanging limp on their staffs for the first time all day, Gatlin had the ideal conditions to shine.
He promised he would have broken the world record if needed, but his dominance was such that he could coast over the final metres and finish .11s slower than the mark of Asafa Powell, who was out with a groin injury.
His winning margin was the largest in the 22-year history of the championships. In 1987, Carl Lewis beat Ray Stewart of Jamaica by .15s.
The absence of the injured Powell is the only question mark which will now hang over Gatlin’s performance. On Sunday, Powell also withdrew from the Jamaican relay team.
Frater tried to make up for Powell’s absence, and getting a silver for Jamaica was a major surprise.
Collins, of St Kitts and Nevis, had been struggling all season, but he proved again he was the man for the big occasion, sneaking through for bronze.
In a Baltic battle, double Olympic and defending champion Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania needed a championship-record throw of 70,17m in the discus on the last attempt of the competition to win. That bettered the mark of Estonia’s Gerd Kanter by 1,60m.
On a good day for Jamaica, Trecia Smith won the triple jump with a leap of 15,11m, beating Yargelis Savigne of Cuba and Anna Pyatykh of Russia.
Like the 100, the triple jump was affected by injury. Tatyana Lebedeva, the double defending champion, withdrew at the last minute because of an Achilles problem.
Ivanova dominated the walk from start to finish, and even had time to wrap herself in a Russian flag before crossing the line in 1 hour, 25 minutes, 41 seconds. It beat the old mark set two years ago by 41 seconds.
”I expected it. Everything went according to plan,” said Ivanova, who will get $60 000 for gold and $100 000 for the record.
Ivanova also won the world title in 2001 and got the silver medal in Athens at last year’s Olympics.
Favourites Christine Arron and Chandra Sturrup both easily qualified for Monday’s semifinals in the women’s 100, Arron clocking 11,03 while running into a headwind.
The Frenchwoman is still unbeaten in the Golden League this year but Sturrup has the fastest time.
After a mediocre season, Olympic champion Yuliya Nesterenko is seeking to peak in Helsinki. She qualified second in the same quarterfinal as Arron.
The heptathlon battle between Kluft and 2001 Barber lived up to all the hype.
After Kluft overcame a painful ankle and rallied to put herself back into contention for the gold on Saturday, she swept past Barber in the long jump.
Kluft jumped a season’s beat 6,87m, edging Barber by 12cm. In the javelin, Kluft again set a season’s best with 47,20m. Barber was expected to do much better but only managed 48,24m.
It set up the thrilling 800 and extended her winning streak to 13 heptathlons.
Ivanova is not expected to be the only Russian collecting the $100 000 prize for a world record. Yelena Isinbayeva will also be looking for the prize.
The serial world record breaker, who became the first woman to clear five metres last month, just took one jump at 4,40 before clearing the qualifying height of 4,45 with consummate ease. The final is set for Wednesday.
Former Olympic champion Stacy Dragila failed to qualify. The 34-year-old Dragila, who won world titles in 1999 and 2001, could not clear 4,45m, following her disappointment in Athens with yet another miss. Dragila also failed to qualify for the Olympic final.
”Just had a rough day out there,” Dragila said. – Sapa-AP