Merritt crushes Wariner again for 400m title

Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt dethroned two-time defending world champion Jeremy Wariner when he strode to an impresive victory in the 400m at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin yesterday.

The American, who finished second at the Osaka 2007 worlds, clocked a world lead of 44.06 seconds, far off his Beijing Games time of 43.75 seconds, the fifth fastest time ever.

Compatriot Wariner timed a season's best of 44.60 for silver with Trinidad's Renny Quow taking bronze in 45.02.

Merritt, Wariner and the Bahamas' Chris Brown, who won an Olympic 4x400m silver medal at the Beijing Games, all set off at a cracking pace, with the latter tracking down Wariner before fading at the final bend.

The American arch-rivals came off that turn and into the home stretch within a pace of each other and remained that way for 20 metres before the Olympic champion put his foot on the gas and pulled away to win by a clear three metres.

There was some consolation for Wariner, who also won world gold at Helsinki in 2005, in that he did not suffer a similarly large margin of defeat to Merritt as he had done in Beijing.

Tabarie Henry of the US Virgin Islands finished in fourth (45.42sec), with Brown in fifth at 0.05 and Ireland's David Gillick a further 0.06 adrift.

Briton's Michael Bingham came in seventh with France's Leslie Djhone in eighth position.

Two-time defending champion Allyson Felix of the United States won the women's 200 metres title.

The 23-year-old timed 22.02 seconds to beat Jamaica's two-time Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown (22.35) while veteran Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas took the bronze (22.41).

"I knew I was strong and just powered away," said Felix. "It's really special to win a third world title. I wanted to do it in this stadium, represent my country and make Jesse Owens proud."

Campbell-Brown, who twice has edged Felix for the Olympic title, was slower out of the blocks than the American, but had a better bend and on the turn into the straight she was right up on her great rival.

However, a season which has been beset by injuries appeared to affect the 27-year-old Jamaican and Felix found an extra gear to take a significant lead.

Campbell-Brown realised the game was up and defended her silver medal stoically as first another American Muna Lee came to challenge her and then Ferguson McKenzie - who had been the fastest in the semi-finals - got going after being left at the start.

Campbell-Brown, 100m world champion in 2007 but silver behind Felix in 2007 in the 200m, resisted successfully to cross the line some way behind Felix who raised her arms in triumph as she breasted the finishing line.

Sergey Kirdyapkin won his second 50km world title to give Russia a clean sweep of walking events at the world championships.

The 2005 world champion finished in a season-leading three hours, 38 minutes and 35 seconds over a course at the Brandenburg Gate.

Norway's Trond Nymark took the silver and Spain's Jesus Angel Garcia claimed bronze.

Russia won the men's and women's 20km walks earlier in the championships.

US relay team disqualified

The United States were disqualified from the men's 4x100 metres relay on Friday after qualifying fastest for Saturday's final.

The holders, who missed the 2008 Olympic final after dropping the baton in the heats, were found to have made a changeover outside the box.

US officials said they would appeal.

High jump (men): 1. Y. Rybakov (Russia); 2. K. Ioannou (Cyprus); 3. S. Bednarek (Poland), R. Pank (Germany).