Kirani James World Champion 400m 44.60s (Video)

Kirani James of Grenada set a personal best 44.60s to win the gold medal in the men's 400m at the IAAF Daegu World Championships. The medal is the first for Grenada in any event at the World championships in athletics. The 18-year-old (19 years on September 01) upsets the defending world champion LaShawn Meritt in the silver medal position (44.43). Belgium's Kevin Borlee took the bronze medal in 44.90s.

Meritt was expected to defend his world title when he ran a world lead 44.35s in the round 1, but it's really the day for Kirani who chased down Meritt at last 10 meters. With the victory, Kirani James became the youngest athlete to win the men's 400m at the IAAF World championships. The time however is way off the world junior record 43.87s set by Steven Lewis of USA enroute to win the gold medal at 1988 Olympics.

Beside that, there's another great achievement in the finals. Belgians Kevin Borlee (bronze) and Jonathan Borlee (fifth) are a pair of twins, and without any doubt the fastest twins in the world for quarter-mile event. The twins coached by their father, Jacques Borlee. 

Results (400m Men Final)
1, Kirani James, GRN, 44.60 NR (Rt 0.137)
2, LaShawn Meritt, USA, 44.63 (Rt 0.263)
3, Kevin Borlee, BEL, 44.90 (Rt 0.182)
4, Jermaine Gonzales, JAM, 44.99 (Rt 0.138)
5, Jonathan Borlee, BEL, 45.07 (Rt 0.160)
6, Rondell Bartholomew, GRN, 45.45 (Rt 0.314)
7, Tabarie Henry, ISV, 45.55 (Rt 0.167)
8, Femi Seun-Ogunode, QAT, 45.55 (Rt 0.170)

Video of 400m Men Final (Kirani James 44.60) - Daegu World Championships 

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Carmelita Jeter World Champion at 100m 10.90s Daegu World Championships in Athletics

As expected, Carmelita Jeter of USA won the 100m women final at the IAAF World championships in athletics at Daegu on 29.08.2011. She clocked a moderate time of 10.90s in the race against a strong headwind -1.4m/s. Second place was the Olympic and world champion, Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica in 10.97s. Trinidad and Tobago's Kelly-Ann Baptista finished third (10.98s), just ahead of the Olympic champion Shelly Ann Fraser of Jamaica (10.99s) who made a comeback after a "long break".

Jeter, who coached by renowned track guru, John Smith did not get a good start, was 3rd place at first 40 meters but managed to execute the race very well, overtaken Shelly Ann Fraser at last 30 meters and across the line with happiness - first world title. In 2009, she ran an incredible 10.64s - second fastest time of all-time (behind Flo-Jo 10.49s), and prior to that she did 10.67s.

Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare finished 5th in 11.12s, ahead of Jamaica's Kerron Stewart in 6th position (11.15s). Bulgaria's Ivet Lalova who has a PB of 10.77s only managed to place 7th in 11.27s with Marshevet Myers of USA last in 11.33s.

To sum up, all women sprinters (100m) at the 2011 World championships are faster than Sogelau Tuvalu !!.

Video of women's 100m final (-1.4) - IAAF World Championships in Athletics

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Jason Richardson World Champion 110mh 13.16s, Dayron Robles Disqualified - Daegu 2011

The men's 110mh final would be very exciting when three fastest high hurdlers of all time, Dayron Robles (12.87 WR), Liu Xiang (12.88) and David Oliver (12.89s) lining up against each other at the third day of World championships in Daegu.

However, the world record holder and Olympic champion, Dayron Robles of Cuba was disqualified for stopping China's Liu Xiang to hunt the gold medal.

Dayron Robles was leading the fields from the start but Liu Xiang came from behind to overtake him and when both clearing the 9th hurdles, there was a slight "pulling" from Robles that made Liu to lost the momentum before both athletes hits each other at last hurdles. Robles across the line in 13.14s, followed by Richardson in 13.16s and Liu in 13.27s.  Andy Turner finished in 13.44, the same official time as Oliver in 5th.

Protest by China camp on behalf of Liu Xiang was successful and the incident was classified as "obstruction on track" although the such incident is considered "nature of the high hurdles". As the second finisher, Jason Richardson was awarded the gold medal , Liu Xiang and Andy Turner moved up for silver an bronze respectively.

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Looks Like Yohan Blake False Started ?

There is some confusion regarding the false start drama recently.

To begin with, Usain Bolt was unable to retain his world 100m title. Reason: false start. 

Clearly, he moved out of the blocks "too early" (-0.10s) and resulted in disqualification. According the new rule (162.7), one false start would result in disqualification.

Automatically, it paved a larger window for his training partner, Yohan Blake to create a history. 

Regardless of intention, any movements including flicking, twitching, or flinching, which can produce certain level of pressure on the pedals of a block, if occurred before 0.100s, would be considered false start. 

Here is the problem. Which athletes made the first movement at the set position? please have a look at the video carefully:

• See Usain Bolt in the lane 5, and see also Yohan Blake in lane 6. 
• At the full set position, there is a slight body movement from Blake (0:13-0:15), which might have triggered a respond (to move) from athletes who have already set the mind to react as fast as possible when a stimulus received. 
• Nevertheless the flinch was not obvious, it's difficult to catch a minor flinch with naked eye. 
• Furthermore, after the break, people (including the officials) focusing on Usain Bolt who took off his vest immediately then covered his face, seems expressing he was the one who guilty.

That's the first point. Another thing to point is that the mistake done by the officials. Under the rule 162.6 (c), the starter shall abort the start when there are interference or disturbs during set position. In this case, there was a bit interference. But again, it's dependent on the discretion or judgement of starter.

Video of men's 100m final (& false start) - IAAF World championships in atheltics



In contrast, experienced sprinter Dwain Chambers of GBR was disqualified for committed the same thing. Here is the video (fast forward 1:50);

Men's 100m semifinal 1 - Dwain Chambers false start, Yohan Blake won in 9.95


All in all, based on the rules and consideration (starter's discretion), Yohan Blake didn't commit a false start while Usain Bolt did. Maurice Greene was indeed correct when he predicts Blake would upsets Bolt at World championships. Anyway, the IAAF need to fix and improve the regulations regarding "the start" and judgements must be consistent.

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Complete Video of 100m Men Final & Semifinals - 2011 Daegu World Championships in Athletics

Videos and results of 100m men final and semifinals (28.08.11), IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Daegu 2011.

Men's 100m final (-1.4)
Yohan Blake JAM 9.92, Walter Dix USA 10.08, Kim Collins SKN 10.09, Christophe Lemaitre FRA 10.19, Daniel Bailey ANT 10.26, Jimmy Vicaut FRA 10.27, Nesta Carter JAM 10.95, Usain Bolt JAM Dsq 162.7


100m Semifinal 1 (-0.4)
Yohan Blake JAM 9.95, Walter Dix USA 10.05, Jimmy Vicaut FRA 10.10, Daniel Bailey ANT 10.14, Keston Bledman TRI 10.14, Andrew Hinds BAR 10.32, Angel David Rodriguez ESP 10.49, Dwain Chambers GBR Dsq 162.7


Men 100m Semifinal 2  (-1.0)
Usain Bolt JAM 10.05, Christophe Lemaitre FRA 10.11, Richard Thompson TRI 10.20, Trell immons USA 10.21, Jayasuma Saidy Ndure NOR 10.21, Michael Frater JAM 10.23, Marlon Devonish GBR 10.25, Dariusz Kuc POL 10.51


100m Men Semifinal 3 (-0.8)
Kim Collins SKN 10.08, Nesta Carter JAM 10.16, Harry Aiines-Aryeetey GBR 10.23, Justin Gatlin USA 10.23, Ngonidzashe Makusha ZIM 10.27, Churandy Martina NED 10.29, Azaz Ouhadi MAR 10.45, Justyn Warner CAN 10.47



Videos of 100m men round 1  (Heat 1 to 7) click here

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