Masai stuns Ethiopians in 10,000m; smiling Bolt moves on

BERLIN - Linet Masai ended a 12-year title drought for Kenya with victory in the women’s 10,000m while Usain Bolt exchanged smiles with a training partner on his way to the 100m semi-finals at the World Athletics Championships.

Masai, 19, took full advantage of the injury-related absence of two-time defending champion Tirunesh Dibaba to win a slow-paced race in 30 minutes 51.24 seconds here Sunday.

She pipped Ethiopian season leader Meselech Melkamu (30:51.34) on the final strides, with Wude Ayalew of Ethiopia third in 30:51.95.

German President Roman Herzog officially opened the nine-day championships in the Olympic Stadium a few hours after Valeriy Borchin of Russia added the 20km walk title to his Olympic gold in the first final, held in downtown Berlin.

In the day’s other medal event, Chris Cantwell of the US avenged his Olympic defeat against Tomasz Majewski when he beat the Pole with a big put of 22.03m.

The three-time Olympic champion Bolt strolled through his second round race, easing up after little more than half of the distance and spending the remaining seconds exchanging smiles with his training partner Daniel Bailey of Antigua.

Bailey won in 10.02 to Bolt’s 10.03. Former world record holder Asafa Powell led the round with 9.95 seconds and Bolt’s alleged principle rival Tyson Gay 9.98 after a terrible start due to his nagging groin problem.

“The groin is pretty sore,” said Gay, who limped out in the Olympic semi-final last year. “But it went pretty well.”

Bolt, clearly enjoying his star status by working the crowd, had nothing to say while Powell, who has always chocked in big finals, was happy to have survived a morning scare in the heats when he eased up too soon and was almost eliminated.

“It feels good. I just wanted to get out of today,” said Powell.

In the women’s 10,000m, the late withdrawal of Dibaba did not seem likely to stop Ethiopia from winning, but neither Melkamu nor the others could stop Masai on the home stretch.

Former 5,000m champion Meseret Defar led a five-strong leader group onto the final straight, but then tired dramatically to finish fifth.

Melkamu took the lead but Masai gave everything she had and passed her on the outside for a stunning win, Kenya’s first over the distance after five Ethiopian titles since Sally Barsosio won in 1997.

“I can’t believe it! I’m so grateful for the win. I didn’t give up. The plan of the Kenyan team was to assist ourselves toward the end,” said Masai.

Melkamu said: “I am very, very disappointed that we lost the gold. For myself personally, I am pleased because this is my first time running this event at the world championships, so I’m happy I got a medal … I never saw the Kenyan.”

In the classy shot put competition, Cantwell led early but Majewski then went ahead with massive puts in the fourth and fifth round, 21.68 and then 21.91m.

However, Cantwell rebounded seconds later with a world leading 22.03m which settled the top. Ralf Bartels delighted a home crowd with the first medal for Germany, bronze with a personal best 21.37m.

Borchin, 22, shook off Chinese rival Hao Wang shortly after the 15km-mark as he claimed victory in 1:18:41 hours. Hao got the silver in a personal best 1:19:06 hours and Eder Sanchez of Mexico took the bronze in 1:19:22.

An early leader group of Italians Giorgio Rubino and Ivano Brugnetti and Norwegian Erik Tysse could not maintain the pace in the second half of the race.

“I was trying to prevent the other athletes from going too far away from me. The most important thing was not to leave the group,” said Borchin about the crucial first half of the race.

In other action, Russian heroine Yelena Isinbayeva took just one jump over 4.60m to qualify for the pole vault final.

In the men’s 1,500m heats defending champion Bernard Lagat of the US advanced into the semi-finals in 3:41.60 minutes along with Kenyan Olympic silver medallist Asbel Kiprop, who won the same heat in 3:41.42 minutes.

Favourite Jessica Ennis of Britain led the heptathlon after four events overnight with 4,124 points from Ukrainian Olympic champion Natalia Dobraynska (3,817) and Germany’s Jennifer Oeser (3,814).

Sunday’s finals apart from the 100m and the completion of the heptathlon are the women’s shot put and 20km walk.