American Athletes Save Best For Last On Day Seven Of World Athletics Championships

By Steve Schy
Berlin
22 August 2009

Rain poured and thunder roared Friday night as lightning lit up the sky over the Olympic Stadium on Day Seven of the World Athletics Championships in Germany.

Heavy rain delayed the competition by about 45 minutes during the evening session, as athletes and fans alike tried to wish the storm away. When the rain finally slowed, four medal events and three key qualifiers still awaited completion.

Allyson Felix on the track during her gold medal run, 21 Aug 2009

The United States struck gold in the last two events of the night, as Allyson Felix reached the top of the podium in the women's 200-meters with a time of 22.02 seconds. Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica earned the silver, one-third of a second back.

Felix said she was thrilled to win the 200-meters world championship again. "It's good, number three is definitely special. I'm so happy that it took place here, with so much history. I couldn't ask for more tonight," she said.

LaShawn Merritt

LaShawn Merritt combined with Jeremy Wariner for an American 1-2 finish in the men's 400-meters. Merritt easily took the gold with a world leading time of 44.06 seconds, and says he expected nothing less. "I wanted to come out and get it done, you know, I said I was going to do it. I was here a couple of days ago and I said I was going to get it done. I had run the race probably a million times in my head before I stepped on the track. And it just so happened every time I ran it in my head I won. I won. I got an A for the day," he said.

Earlier, Russia's Yaroslav Rybakov took the men's high jump gold with a leap of 2.32-meters, while the women's discus title went to Dani Samuels of Australia with a personal best throw of 65.44 meters.

In the semi-final heats, women, including three Americans, qualified for Sunday's 1,500-meters final. In men's events, American runners qualified for the finals in the 800-meters, but were disqualified from the four-by-100 meter relay for an illegal baton exchange in the semifinals.