Human bullet Tyson Gay (U.S.) won three gold medals yesterday.
At Nagai Stadium on August 1, Gay won his third gold medal in the Mens 400-meter relay final of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics at Osaka. Gay became the fourth man to win three gold medals at the IAAF World Championships following Americans Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene.
The U.S team won the race in a record 37.78 seconds, beating Jamaica (37.89 seconds) by 0.11 seconds. Jamaica pinned its hopes for the race on the world record holder in the mens 100 meters, Asafa Powell (9.77 seconds), but the gap between him and the front runner of the U.S. was too big to catch up. The U.S. also won the womens 400 meter-relay final with a record of 41.98 seconds, defeating Jamaica (42.01 seconds). Allyson Felix, a gold medalist in the womens 200 meters and the second runner in the race, won her second gold medal.
Catherine Ndereba (Kenya) won the womens marathon with a record of 2:30:37 yesterday. Chinas Zhou Chunxiu, gold medalist at the Doha Asian Games and the seasons record holder (2:20:38), struggled to stay in first place with Ndereba throughout the race, but reached the finish line eight seconds later than Ndereba. Reiko Tosa (Japan) won Japan its first medal, winning third place with a record of 2:30:55. Lim Kyung-hee (Suwon City Hall) and Chae Eun-hee (Korea Water Resources Corporation) were ranked 44th and 45th place, respectively, with records of 2:49:30 and 2:50:26.
Kim Kun-woo (Pohang City Hall) won big applause from more than 40,000 audience members leading the first and second divisions with a record of 4:16.16 in the Mens 1500 meters, the last category of the Mens decathlon yesterday, but ranked in 23rd place with 7,531 points.