Thursday, August 20, 2009 BERLIN: The 12th World Athletics Championships concluded its fifth day on Wednesday, producing gold medals in four events, men's discus throw, men's 1,500m race, women's 100m hurdles and women's 800m race. Robert Harting of Germany won men's discus title, with an overjoyed host audience at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. The 24-year-old, a silver medalist of the last world championship in 2007, threw a best distance of 69.43 meters only in the sixth and last attempt. "I was shaking my head during the competition because I was not satisfied with my throws," Harting told reporters following the competition. "I owe the last meter of my sixth attempt to the audience." Piotr Malachowski of Poland had led from the first round, but he finally lost the title and took silver with 69.15 meters. Defending champion and Olympic gold medalist Gerd Kanter of Estonia did not perform well and only took bronze with 66.88 meters. The men's 1,500m race was won by Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain, who was born in Kenya. His mark was 3 minutes, 35.93 seconds. Kamel, 26, is the son of Billy Konchellah, a former Kenyan 800mrunner who won two World Championships gold medals. Ethiopia's Deresse Mekonnen won silver with 3:36.01, while defending champion Bernard Lagat of the United States only took bronze with a mark of 3:36.20. In women's 100m hurdles, veteran Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica won gold with 12.51, a season's best for her. The 34-year-old was the bronze winner in Helsinki in 2005 and silver winner in Paris in 2003. Canada's Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, won silver with 12.54. The bronze medal went to Jamaica's Delloreen Ennis-London, who also won medals at the 2005 and 2007 world championships. She finished the race with a mark of12.55. South Africa's Caster Semenya, whose gender is in controversy, won women's 800 meters gold. The 18-year-old, who has led the world since her 1:56.72 breakout performance at the African Junior championships last month, won gold with 1 minute, 55.45 seconds. Defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei of Kenya had to face a tough race and take silver with 1:57.90. Jennifer Meadows of Britain got third with 1:57.93. Hours before the race, the ruling body IAAF said that a gender test had been conducted on Semenya to confirm whether she was a real woman or not. But the test result could not be available until some time later. There had been doubts about Semenya's gender because of her masculine physique. But the IAAF said she must be allowed to run as there is still no firm evidence to show that she is not a woman.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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