… Bolt remains on course to repeat sprint double
BERLIN, Germany (CMC) – Jamaican veteran Brigitte Foster-Hylton thumped a high quality field in a brilliant gold medal run in the 100-metre hurdles at the 12th IAAF World Championship last night.

The 34-year-old Foster-Hylton, widely rated as being past her best, delivered a near perfect race to win her first global title in a personal season’s best 12.51 seconds at the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

She started well, ran solidly throughout and clung on to the lead at the end, repelling strong late-race challenges from Canadian Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (12.54) and Jamaican Delloreen Ennis-London (12.55).

“I am overjoyed, I’ve waited many years for this,” an ecstatic Foster-Hylton said after the race.

Foster-Hylton had won two previous World Championship medals – silver in Paris (2003) and bronze in Helsinki (2005) and her triumph stunned her rivals in an event that was billed as one of the most competitive at the nine-day championship.

“I won silver in Paris and the bronze in Helsinki and to top it off now gold in Berlin, it’s very special to me,” Hylton-Foster said.

Reigning American Olympic champion Dawn Harper, who had sped to a rapid 12.48 victory in the semi-finals earlier in the evening, finished seventh in 12.81 and Canada’s ex-World Champion Perdita Felicien was eighth.

The result marked the second time that both Foster-Hylton and Ennis-London were winning medals in the same World Championship final.

At the Helsinki World Championship four years ago, London had landed silver when Hylton-Foster took bronze.

Foster-Hylton, the Jamaica record holder at 12.45 seconds, had served notice of her form by posting a personal season’s best 12.54 to win her semi-final race over Felicien (12.58).

Jamaica’s former Commonwealth Games champion Lacena Golding-Clarke (12.76) was eliminated after placing fourth in her semi-final.

Foster-Hylton’s victory lifted Jamaica’s gold medal tally to three, following 100-metre gold medal triumphs for Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser.

With three gold, two silver and two bronze medals, the Jamaicans marginally trail the USA in the medal table, the Americans with three gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

Earlier, Olympic champion Bolt kept most of his energy in reserve as he coasted to a fine 200-metre semi-final win in 20.08 seconds.

Looking slightly jaded by his hectic schedule here that included a stunning 100-metre world record 9.58 seconds on Sunday, Bolt jogged the last 90 metres of his half-lap semi-final but was still too good for Panama’s Alonso Edward, who ran into second spot in 20.22.

A win in today’s final would allow Bolt to repeat the sprint double feat he achieved at the Beijing Olympics last year.

As Bolt decelerated towards the finish, Edward, American Shawn Crawford (20.35) and David Alerte (20.45) closed in to grab spots in the final.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Rondell Sorillo (20.63) and Antigua Brendan Christian (20.79) were ousted after placing sixth and eighth, respectively.

In semi-final two, American Wallace Spearmon (20.14) won ahead of Jamaican Steve Mullings (20.26) while American Charles Clark (20.27) and Azerbaijan’s Ramil Guliyev (20.28) joined them in the final. T&T’s Emmanuel Callender placed eighth in 20.70.

The women began 200-metre preliminaries and Jamaica’s Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown was among the first-round winners.

Campbell-Brown, who lost her World Championship 100-metre title with a fourth place finish on Monday, clocked 23.01 to win Heat 6.

The Caribbean also secured heat wins through Jamaicans Simone Facey (22.83) and Cayman’s Cydonie Mothersill (22.69) while Bahamians Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (22.71) and Sheniqua Ferguson (23.35), Jamaican Anneisha McLaughlin (22.91), the US Virgin Islands’ LaVerne Jones-Ferrette (22.97), Trinidad and Tobago’s Kelly-Ann Baptiste (23.00), and Kittitians Virgil Hodge (23.34) and Tameka Williams (23.27) also progressed.

Caribbean sprinters failing to advance were Barbadian Jade Bailey (23.84), Kittitian Meritzer Williams (23.72), and Suriname’s Sunayna Wahl (24.74).

In the morning session, Barbadian Ryan Brathwaite scored a solid first-round victory in the 110-metre hurdles.

Brathwaite, 21, was the quickest of the round, winning in 13.35 seconds and his medal hopes appeared to be enhanced when Cuban race favourite Dayron Robles posted an unsound performance in his heat and the American Aries Merritt surprisingly exited in the first round.

Olympic champion Robles, battling injury, needed a desperate finish to snatch third in his heat and a spot in today’s semi-finals.

Barbados national record holder Brathwaite looked smooth and dominated Heat 4, chased by Britain’s Alexander John (13.41).

“It was quite comfortable for me, I am ready,” Brathwaite said.

Brathwaite, a Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Champion in 2006 and IAAF World Youth silver medallist in Morocco in 2005, was a semi-finalist at the Osaka World Championship two years ago and also made the Beijing Olympics semi-finals last year.

Jamaican Maurice Wignall ran 13.62 seconds to win Heat 2 in which Robles placed third, advancing with a 13.67 clocking.

Robles has a thigh injury and it is unclear whether he will contest the semi-finals.

Merritt, one of the world’s best, made a shock exit when he could only manage 13.70 for fourth in Heat 3.

Jamaican Dwight Thomas, a close second in Heat 1 behind China’s Dongpeng Shi (13.56) in 13.57 seconds, also progressed in the sprint hurdles along with Bahamian Shamar Sands, who got through as one of the fastest losers to today’s semis at 13.57 seconds.

Jamaican Richard Phillips, who placed fifth in the sixth heat, was the only CARICOM athlete eliminated in the event.

There was a dreadful start to the decathlon for the Jamaican Maurice Smith, who was the silver medallist at the 2007 Osaka World Championship.

The reigning Pan American Games champion pulled up with an injury — to his left thigh — during the 100 metres and limped to the finish in 29.42 seconds.

His leg was strapped and iced and he withdrew from the day’s remaining events, the long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 metres.

The men’s high jump title defence by Bahamian Donald Thomas also ended abruptly.

In the qualifying round yesterday morning, Thomas could only manage 2.27 metres, not good enough to make the final.

His Bahamian team-mate Trevor Barry (2.24m) also missed out.

There was an impressive run in the men’s 400-metre semi-finals from T&T’s Renny Quow, who finished very fast to snatch second spot behind American Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt in Heat 2 in a personal best 44.53, the second quickest time in the world so far this year.

Merritt’s winning time was a world-leading 44.37 seconds and Quow, a former IAAF World Junior champion, knows he must recover quickly to deliver another top effort in tomorrow’s final.

“I’ll try but right now I am just going to go back home and relax so we will see,” Quow said.

Bahamian Chris Brown (44.95) and the US Virgin Islands’ Tabarie Henry (44.97) were first and second advancing from Heat 3, in which Jamaican Ricardo Chambers was eliminated in third although he clocked a personal season’s best 45.13.

Bahaman Ramon Miller ran a personal best 44.99 but failed to advance in the one-lap event along with Dominica’s Erison Hurtault (45.59).

In other finals contested yesterday, South African teenager Caster Semenya easily won the women’s 800 metres in a world leading one minute 55.45 seconds over defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei (1:57.90), Bahrain’s Yusuf Saad Kamel (3:35.93) won the men’s 1500 metres and Germany’s Robert Harting won the men’s discus at 69.43 metres.