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.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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