Four Gold Medals Handed Out On Day 5 At The World Athletics Championships In Berlin



20 August 2009

The World Athletics Championship in Germany continued with a fifth day of competition on Wednesday. Medals were handed out in four disciplines.

The morning session was filled with qualifying rounds. The women competed in disciplines such as the discus throw, 200 and 5,000-meters, while the men tried to advance in the high jump, 110-meter hurdles and several decathlon events.

The business of earning medals started in the evening session with the men's discus throw final. Home-country favorite Robert Harting thrilled the partisan German crowd by winning the gold medal with a personal best throw of 69.43-meters. Piotr Malachowski of Poland took silver, with the bronze going to Estonia's Gerd Kanter.

Kenyan-born Yusuf Saad Kamel, who now runs for Bahrain, took the men's 1,500-meter gold in 3:35.93. Ethiopia's Deresse Mekonnen earned the silver (3:36.01), while American Bernard Lagat settled for bronze. But after the race Lagat insisted he was not disappointed.

Bernard Legat
Bernard Lagat
"In 2008 [at the Olympics] I was not even in the finals. And today I was able to actually get in the medal stand. And so this is an improvement from of course last year, being able to train injury free, feeling great. And so, you know, it's not a disappointment. Of course I wanted to win, I wanted to get the big one, but unfortunately I did not get that today," he said.

In women's events, Bridget Foster-Hylton of Jamaica stormed to the tape in a season's best time of 12.51 seconds to take the gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles, while the 800-meter crown went to Caster Semenya of South Africa with a world-leading time of 1:55.45.

The United States continues to lead the medals table with eight including three gold. Jamaica is second with three gold and a total of seven, while Kenyan runners have led their country to third place with six medals, including two gold.