Beijing: South African Wayde van Niekerk scorched to a remarkable victory in the men’s 400m at the world championships in Beijing on Wednesday.
Van Niekerk became South Africa’s first world sprint champion as he stormed around the one-lap race in 43.48 seconds, becoming the fourth fastest athlete in the event and the quickest non-American.
A loaded field saw defending champion Lawshawn Merritt, who also won the world title in Berlin in 2009, timed a personal best of 43.65sec for silver, while Grenada’s Olympic champion Kirani James claimed bronze in a season’s best of 43.78sec.
Julius Yego of Kenya earlier recorded the longest javelin throw in 14 years with a mark of 92.72 metres to win his first Worlds gold. Yego was in eighth position before his third attempt in the final, when he landed chest-down behind the line after unleashing the world-leading throw.
The world record of 98.48 metres was set in 1996 by Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic, who also set the championship record at 92.80 in 2001.
It was the first time in history five throwers recorded marks beyond 87 metres in a championship final.
Ihab Abdul Rahman Al Syed of Egypt briefly held the lead at 88.99 and finished with the silver medal. Tero Pitkamaki of Finland, the 2007 world champion, took bronze at 87.64, followed by Thomas Roehler of Germany (87.18) and Antti Ruuskaen of Finalnd (87.12).
The 26-year-old Yego entered the meet with a pesonal best of 91.39, the world-leading mark of the year.
Yego was the first Kenyan to reach an Olympic final in a field event at the 2012 London Games, the same year he won an IAAF scholarship to train in Finland.
Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic defended her title in the 400-metre hurdles with a world leading run of 53.50 seconds. Hejnova came back strongly after missing the 2014 season after breaking a bone in her left foot.
Shamier Little of the United States got silver from the tight inside lane .44 seconds behind the Czech, edging teammate Cassandra Tate, who finished in 54.02. Commonwealth champion Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica stumbled early in the race and finished last.
Caster Semenya ensured an automatic qualifying spot in the next round of the 800 metres when she finished third in her opening heat. The 2009 world champion and 2012 Olympic silver medalist was running in seventh place rounding into the last straight and surged to finish in 1 minute, 59.59 seconds, just behind Marina Arzamosova of Belarus and Linsey Sharp of Britain in the fastest of the six heats.
Defending champion Eunice Sum of Kenya also qualified automatically, winning her heat in 1:59.67.
Mo Farah stumbled a couple of times as he started the second stage of his bid for a long-distance double at the world championships.
Farah, who won the 5,000- and 10,000-metre gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics and has already won the 10,000 title in Beijing, stumbled halfway through his opening heat of the 5,000 and again tripped in a tight pack about 150 metres from the finish. He recovered his footing quickly to cross in second place in his heat to advance in 13 minutes, 19.44 seconds.
