Osaka JPN - Athletics fans could not have asked for more that what the final 70 or so minutes of action on the track provided on Day Seven at Nagai Stadium.

Wariner dominating defence

Jeremy Wariner has started to produce the times to go with his titles, suggesting that he may yet emulate his manager, Michael Johnson in all departments.

The 23-year-old, who was already Olympic and world 400m champion, added another world one-lap title on Friday. But he didn’t have it all his own way for the first 330m, his colleague, LaShawn Merritt matching him stride for stride. But then the lean Texan started to drive up the straight, and the race was over. Wariner won in 43.45, improving his third best in history, set two weeks ago in Stockholm. Merrit was rewarded with a silver, and at 43.96, the eighth fastest ever. Angelo Taylor made it a USA 1-2-3, and proved again that hurdlers can sprint on the flat too. The Sydney Olympic ‘quarter’ hurdles champion finished third in 44.32, while Chris Brown scored another mark for the Bahamas, improving on Edmonton champion, Avard Moncur’s national record with 44.45 in fourth.

First World title for Xiang

With a year to go before the Olympic Games in Beijing, China has not made the best of showings here, winning just a bronze before tonight. But Liu Xiang did not disappoint. The high hurdles World record holder was matched over the first eight barriers by perennial ‘nearly man’ Terrence Trammell of the USA (whose athletes, incidentally have won more Olympic titles in this event than in the 100m). But Liu pulled away over the last two, to record 12.95, with Trammell in 12.99sec, and David Payne, also of the USA third on 13.02. With his win, China’s most popular athlete completed a full collection of championship medals, after Paris bronze and Helsinki silver. Trammell matched his finish from 2003, while Payne, who wasn’t even in Osaka just a few days ago, pulled off the biggest surprise.

Another US sprinter, Allyson Felix successfully defended her title in the 200m, with a peerless display of sprinting, passing 100m winner, Veronica Campbell of Jamaica entering the straight, and going away to win in 21.81, the fastest performance in nearly a decade. Campbell, the Olympic champion, held on well for second in 22.34, a season’s best, and Susanthika Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka took bronze, emulating her performance from the Sydney Olympics 2000, in 22.63. The USA, emphasising its supremacy at sprints, featured four finalists, while in the men’s final the previous night, the US trio of Tyson Gay, Wallace Spearmon and Rodney Martin finished first, third and fourth.

With world-leading 15.28m leap, Savigne denies Lebedeva

Tatyana Ledebeva’s attempt to become the first ‘combination jumper’ to win both long and triple jumps faltered after the fifth round, when she edged over 15m for the first time, with a 15.07m leap. The Russian jumped 15.01m with her final attempt, but she couldn’t argue with the 15.28m opening sally of Yargelis Savigne, the 2005 silver medallist, which won Cuba its first gold medal of these IAAF Championships in Athletics. Early leader, Hrysopiyi Devetzi of Greece, wearing a black ribbon on her vest strap in support of the people affected by fires in the Peloponnese, finished third with her opening leap of 15.04m.

Spotakova upsets Germany’s Big 2 in the javelin

It was a European contest in the women’s Javelin throw, and Barbora Spotakova reversed last year’s continental championships result with a vengeance. The Czech opened with a national record of 66.40m, adding 28cms to her mark from earlier in the year. She said later that she intended to shock her opponents, and it worked. It worked even better when she set another record on her third throw, reaching 67.07m. Germans Christina Obergfoll and Steffi Nerius made inroads, but never got close enough, Obergfoll’s best of 66.46m, coming on her final throw for silver, while bronze-medal specialist, Nerius got another one, with 64.42m on her fourth.

Kaniskina leads Russian 20 Km Race Walk 1-2

The day began with a comfortable victory for Olga Kaniskina in the 20Km Race Walk. The 22-year-old led a Russian 1-2 finish in 1:30:09, well ahead of Tatyana Semyakina (1:30:42). The bronze went to Spaniard Maria Vasco (1:30:47), the only other racer to dip under 1:31 on the wet morning.