Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2007-08-28 From: Xinhuanet

OSAKA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — Another two hat-tricks at the Osaka world athletics championships.

After Jefferson Perez (men’s 20km) and Carolina Kluft (heptathlon) grabbed their third consecutive world crowns on Sunday, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele and Belarus’ Ivan Tsikhan also achieved the feat in the men’s 10,000m and hammer finals respectively on Monday.

But the day’s most exciting and dramatic moment was not produced in these two event. It came from the women’s 100m final. Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell won the title following a blanket finish to the final and chaotic scenes.

Campbell and American defending champion Lauryn Williams were both given the same time of 11.01 seconds and the judges took several minutes to decide the Jamaican had won the race.

Torri Edwards, the 2003 world champion, was initially flashed up on the stadium’s big screen as the winner, but several minutes later it was confirmed that Campbell won the gold medal.

“It was one of my longest waits,” Campbell said. “It was a bit confusing because the name was going back and forth but I want to thank God it was me. Williams took the silver and her compatriot Carmelita Jeter bronze in a time of 11.02.

“I really hoped it would be my name up there,” Williams said. “I didn’t really know what happened but when they played it back Irealised that I leaned a bit early.”

Edwards was fourth in 11.05. Campbell’s winning time was the slowest in world championships history.

In the day’s other finals, Russia’s Yekaterina Volkova claimed the women’s 3,000m steeplechase and Nelson Evora of Portugal led all the way from the start to win the men’s triple jump with 17.74m.

Bekele, who also holds the event’s world record of 26 minutes and 17.53 seconds, overtook compatriot Sileshi Sihine in the last 100m and took the title in 27:05.90.

Sihine won the silver in 27:09.03 and Kenya’s Martin Irungu Mathathi finished third in 27:12.17.

Bekele has dominated the event since edging his compatriot and four-time world champion Haile Gebrselassie in the 2003 Paris worlds. He had clean swept all the major titles including the champion of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

“I was tired,” Bekele said. “But I used everything I had to come back, and when I caught Sileshi, of course I had to pass him.”

It was not an easy win for the 31-year-old Tsikhan, who didn’t seal the gold until the last throw. He produced 83.63 meters in his last effort to deny Slovenia’s Primoz Kozmus (82.29m).

“It was a big fight, very tough and very emotional for me,” Tsikhan, the Olympic silver medalist. “Before my last throw I said to myself I could do it. As you see, everything is possible.”

Slovakia’s Libor Charfreitag took bronze with 81.60m.

Japan’s Olympic champion Koji Murofushi never threatened to capture a world title, finishing sixth with a best of 80.46m in the sixth and final round of throws.