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.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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