Usain Bolt breaks world record to win 200 gold

Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt of Jamaica shattered his 200 metres world record when he clocked 19.19 seconds to win the world championship gold medal yesterday.

He beat the mark of 19.30 he had set a year ago to the day at the Beijing Olympics.

Bolt has become the only man ever to hold the 100 and 200 Olympic and world titles as well as the world records at the same time.

Panama's Alonso Edward was second with a time of 19.81 and American Wallace Spearmon third.

The top five sprinters all clocked under 20 seconds.

"I thought it won't hurt to try so I went at it really hard and now I'm really tired," Bolt told the BBC.

"I was trying, I was dying. It wasn't a good race I can say but it was a fast one."

Bolt, a day short of his 23rd birthday, was unfazed by a false start triggered by Frenchman David Alerte and played up to the cameras in his usual way.

Once the starter's pistol went off, the Jamaican bolted from the blocks and within 20 metres he had grabbed the lead he would never relinquish.

He raced down the straight well ahead of everyone else, with only the clock to beat. He caught a glimpse of his time just at the finish line and saw that 11 hundredths had been knocked off yet again.

Bolt had also demolished his own 100 world record on Sunday, taking off 11 hundredths to clock the stunning time of 9.58.

"I was just waiting for the lights to flash Game Over because I was in a video game," said fourth-placed Shawn Crawford of the United States.

Olympic champion Melaine Walker was another Jamaican who caught the limelight yesterday when she won the women's 400 metres hurdles title.

The 26-year-old timed a championship record of 52.42 to beat Lashinda Demus of the United States (52.96) while Trinidad and Tobago's Josanne Lucas took bronze in a national record of 53.20.

Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados won the world championship 110 metres hurdles gold in a thrilling finish where the first three were divided by only a hundredth of a second.

Brathwaite, 21, took the honours by the thickness of his vest in 13.14 seconds.

Terrence Trammell of the United States had to settle for silver for the fifth time in a global competition as he was awarded second ahead of compatriot David Payne after both finished in 13.15.

World record holder and Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba failed to make the final after pulling up injured during his semi-final earlier in the day.

Croatia's defending champion Blanka Vlasic won the women's high jump world title.

The 25-year-old jumped 2.04 metres to beat Anna Chicherova of Russia while home favourite Ariane Friedrich took bronze with 2.02m.

Decathlon final: 1. T. Hardee (US); 2. L. Suarez (Cuba); 3. A. Pogorelov (Russia).