Bai Xue wins China’s first major marathon title, getting gold at the world championships

Bai wins China’s first gold at world championships

BERLIN — Bai Xue finally put China on the marathon map and in the gold medal standings Sunday at the world championships.

On the closing day of the competition, Bai shook off Yoshimi Ozaki of Japan in the latter stages of a sun-drenched women’s marathon through the heart of the German capital to clinch China’s first-ever major title in the event.

And the world’s most populous country with 1.3 billion people finally had a title to celebrate as Bai waved the red flag with five yellow stars around, with a few Chinese fans dancing wildly under the Brandenburg Gate.

By that time, Jamaica had already done all the celebrating it could. With Usain Bolt’s third gold coming in the 400-meter relay late Saturday, the Caribbean island nation of 2.8 million won its seventh gold medal.

Jamaica entered Sunday’s medal-packed day in a tie with the United States for gold, but the Americans were expected to run away with the medals table as they are favorites in both 1,600 relay races.

Bolt is already certain to be the runaway leader with three golds, but there are plenty of doubles on the line.

Kenenisa Bekele is looking for his second straight long-distance double when he seeks to add the 5,000 meters to the 10,000. At the Beijing Games last year, he proved he is up for it.

A win for Bekele can salvage a disappointing championships for Ethiopia, which saw its women’s running team underperform while rival Kenya surged up the standings. Bekele’s gold is Ethiopia’s only one, compared with Kenya’s four.

Bahrain’s Kenyan-born Yusuf Saad Kamel also was going for a double in the 800. The 1,500 champion saw favorite Abubaker Kaki of Sudan crash out in the heats and can expect his toughest competition from 2004 Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia.

In the relays, both 400 champion LaShawn Merritt and 200 champion Allyson Felix can add a second title if their U.S. relay teams perform as expected.

If the Americans had not been eliminated in the 400 relay heats Saturday, Felix could have challenged for three golds.

Other finals on the last day of the nine-day championships are in the women’s long jump and 1,500, and the men’s javelin.