Kenyan Ezekiel Kemboi refused to buckle and allow teenage team-mate Conseslus Kipruto to threaten his dominance of the 3,000 metres steeplechase by powering to a third consecutive world title in Moscow, yesterday.
The 31-year-old clocked 8:06:01 with Kipruto, 18, chasing him home in 8:06.37.
Frenchman Mahiedine Mek-hissi-Benabbad repeated his bronze from Daegu to deny Kenya a podium sweep with Paul Kipsiele Koech placed fourth.
The four Kenyans in the final dictated the pace from the gun to the bell. Mekhissi-Benabbad looked threatening around the home turn but Kemboi simply went up a gear and burst away, allowing himself to slow up towards the line with gold secured.
Kenya are the dominant force in men’s steeplechasing with twice Olympic champion Kemboi laying strong claim to be the best yet to emerge from the east African nation, although Moses Kiptanui also won three successive world title between 1991 and 1995.
Sweden’s Ethiopian-born Abeba Aregawi produced a devastating final 300 metres to deny defending champion Jennifer Simpson a second 1,500 metres gold.
Simpson managed to find an-other gear on the home straight as she fought desperately to retain her title but it was too late and Aregawi, who has lived in Sweden since 2002 and was cleared to compete for the country last December, crossed the line clear of the field in four minutes 2.67 seconds.
American Simpson, her ponytail bobbing behind her, had to settle for silver in 4:02.99 and Kenya’s Hellen Obiri took the bronze with 4:03.86.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Jehue Gordon won his nation’s first World Championship gold for 16 years when he pipped Michael Tinsley to the world 400 metres hurdles title by a hundreth of a second in a lunging finish.
Ato Boldon, who won the 200m crown in 1997, was Trinidad’s last world gold medallist.
Czech Zuzana Hejnova came back strongly in the second half of the race to win the women’s 400 metres hurdles.
The Olympic bronze medallist is unbeaten this season and clocked the fastest time in the world this year of 52.83 seconds for victory.
Dalilah Muhammad, of the US, was second in 54.09 and her compatriot and 2011 world champion Lashinda Demus took third in 54.27.
“To run under 53 seconds – it is fantastic.
“The reason for my improve-ment is that I changed coach and I now train with the boys,” Heynova, 26, told reporters.
“They are faster so they are my motivation.”
Bohdan Bondarenko, of Ukraine, won a gripping men’s high jump final while Caterin Ibarguen took Colombia’s first-ever world gold in the women’s triple jump.
Bondarenko had a great battle with Olympic bronze medallist Mutaz Essa Barshim, of Qatar, and Canada’s Derek Drouin, who both cleared 2.38 metres.
Bondarenko had 2.35 under his belt but then bravely passed on 2.38, only to miss his first attempt at 2.41, a height he has not managed all year.
At the second attempt, however, he made it, for gold, though his latest attempt on Javier Sotomayor’s 20-year-old world record of 2.45 fell short.
In sprints, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has her eyes on a golden double after curtailing the celebrations following her 100 metres victory.
Fraser-Pryce, who took 100 gold at the London Olympics but silver in the longer sprint, will face defending champion Allyson Felix in the final of the 200 after winning her semi yesterday without hitting top gear.
Aiming to become the first woman since Katrin Krabbe in 1991 to win the sprint double at the worlds, the 26-year-old practically jogged over the line to take her race in 22.54.
“I feel much better than last year. This year I did not celebrate so much and I am resting more,” Fraser-Pryce told reporters.