Brilliant Bolt cruises into 200 final

Jamaican Usain Bolt was back to his best on Friday, cruising into the world championships 200 metres final with the greatest of ease before whipping the crowd into a frenzy in Daegu.

"Number one, baby," he mouthed to screaming fans after winning his semi-final in a time of 20.31 seconds.

Bolt, who had kept the showboating to a minimum in the morning heats after his stunning disqualification from the 100 metres final, could not contain himself any longer, primping and preening himself as the camera and the South Korean crowd ate it up.

Among those joining the defending champion and world record holder in Saturday's final are American Walter Dix as well as Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, who ran the fastest semi-final of 20.17.

Bolt blasted out of lane six and had passed American Darvis Patton on his outside in what seemed like the first few strides, powering down the home straight before easing up long before the line.

After getting disqualified from the 100 final for a false start on Sunday, Bolt eschewed showboating and swept past the media without a word earlier on Friday.

However, the lanky Jamaican's celebrations were back on full display after the semi-final as he delivered his signature victory pose then hurled his shoes into the crowd.

Veronica Campbell-Brown ripped Allyson Felix's 200 metres crown from her grip on Friday.

Not many had picked Campbell-Brown for the women's 200 metres title here, with Carmelita Jeter in sensational form having won the 100 metres and Felix more determined than ever having missed out on the 400 metres gold earlier in the week.

But an eager 'VCB' was first out of the blocks and found an extra gear in the race to cross the line first, ahead of Jeter with Felix third.

"I want to thank God for giving me the strength," Campbell-Brown told reporters. "I have a world silver, so finally I got the gold medal. I knew I had to run a strong curve."

American Dwight Phillips retained his world long jump title on Friday, leaping 8.45 metres to repel the challenge of Australian Mitch Watt and claim his fourth world championship gold.

The 33-year-old has had a poor season and qualified for Deagu on the back of his gold medal triumph in Berlin two years ago. But he found his form when he needed it to claim another world title after earlier successes in 2003 and 2005.

"I am very honoured to compete with the best in the world and win my fourth title," he said. "This means a lot to me. This is the most important of my four gold medals because I had a lot of adversaries, I had injuries all year. Nobody believed I could do this."

Watt, who had dominated the season and had the four biggest jumps of the year, leaped 8.33 on his second jump but was unable to better that mark over his final four attempts.

Russia's Maria Abakumova upstaged world record holder Barbora Spotakova to win the women's javelin title at the world championships on Friday.

Abakumova took gold with a championships record of 71.99 metres, the second-longest throw of all time. Czech Spotakova launched a season's best 71.58 for the silver medal while South Africa's Sunette Viljoen took the bronze with 68.38.

It was the first time two women had thrown over 71 metres in the same competition.

Abakumova was delighted to have triumphed in a titanic struggle at the Daegu Stadium and said at one point she feared injury might have kept her from even flying to South Korea.

"I was in a bad position before the championships. I was even thinking whether to fly to Daegu," she said.

American Jennifer Barringer Simpson won the women's 1, 500 metres gold.

Although Simpson's winning time of four minutes 05.40 seconds was the slowest to win a world title, her triumph left her euphoric.

She crossed the line wide-eyed and holding her head after leading home Britain's Hannah England and Spaniard Natalia Rodriguez.

"I am supposed to say I am not surprised," Simpson told reporters.

"All I can say is that a dream has come true. Absolutely there will be a big celebration tonight - I guess I will not sleep for the next (few) nights."