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This article was first published 15 years ago

Images from the world athletics championships in Berlin

Last updated on: August 18, 2009 

Image: Kenenisa Bekele
Photographs: Reuters

Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele joined compatriot Haile Gebrselassie as a four-time 10,000 metres world champion on Monday as he surged to victory with a trademark last-lap burst.

Bekele clocked 26:46.31, a championship best but well off his world record mark, to claim his sixth consecutive 10,000 metres global title.

The 27-year-old has won the past two Olympics plus the four world championships stretching back to 2003.

Fraser battles to 100 gold

Image: Shelly-Ann Fraser

Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica exploded from the blocks and held on to win the world 100 metres gold medal with the season's best time of 10.73 seconds on Monday.

Compatriot Kerron Stewart took silver with American Carmelita Jeter snatching bronze.

As in last year's Olympics, Jamaica have won both blue-riband 100 metres events here after Usain Bolt smashed the world record to take the men's gold on Sunday.

Fraser burst into the lead with a perfect start and thwarted a late challenge from Beijing Games joint silver medallist Stewart, who ran a personal best 10.75.

Jeter, who was also third at the 2007 world championships, took the bronze in 10.90 ahead of holder Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica.

Only Florence Griffith-Joyner and Marion Jones have run faster than Fraser but she said she had expected something special.

"I made the perfect start and executed well," she said. "I left all the world behind me down there on the track."

Rogowska wins pole vault gold

Image: Anna Rogowska

Poland's Anna Rogowska claimed a huge upset victory in the women's world championship pole vault on Monday when she took the gold medal and left Russia's world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva in tears after three failures.

Rogowska claimed the title with a clearance of 4.75 metres. Fellow Pole Monika Pyrek shared silver with American Chelsea Johnson after both cleared 4.65.

Isinbayeva had won the last four global titles, claiming gold at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and 2005 and 2007 world championships as well as a host of European and indoor titles.

She lost to Rogowska at the London Grand Prix last month though and looked sluggish in all three attempts on Monday.

'This defeat will motivate me'

Image: Yelena Isinbayeva

Isinbayeva sat out the early stages of the competition, entering at 4.75 but failed badly.

She then passed on that height but never looked like going clear at 4.80, leaving Rogowska to celebrate her shock success with compatriot Pyrek.

"I was surprised to come first," Rogowska told Italy's Rai TV. "I was thinking Yelena has such perfect technique, so I was surprised to win this competition."

Isinbayeva was in tears and said: "I prepared well but I don't have an explanation, though an injury on my jumping leg did effect my build up.

"This defeat will motivate me to be more concentrated. I think it will be useful for me."

Dominguez wins women's steeplechase

Image: Marta Dominguez

Spain's Marta Dominguez, 33, ran the final straight like a teenager to take gold in the women's steeplechase, waving her headband in the air as she crossed the line.

Primoz Kozmus added the hammer world title to his Olympic crown and Cuba's Yargelis Savigne retained her triple jump title.

Source: REUTERS
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