Llewellyn Herbert of South Africa falls at the final hurdle in the men's 400 metres hurdles final during the World Athletics Championships at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis yesterday. Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic won ahead of Joey Woody (right) of the US and Greece's Periklis Iakovakis was third. Danny McFarlane (centre) of Jamaica was fourth. - Reuters PARIS, France:
LONG JUMPER James Beckford rolled back the years in the Stade de France last night to lift Jamaica's tally at the ninth IAAF World Athletics Championships to three silver medals.
Beckford leapt to a season-best 8.28 metres to take second spot in the final behind gold medallist Dwight Phillips who got up to 8.32m. Spain's Yago Lamela took bronze with a best leap of 8.22m.
In an exciting contest, all three medallists made their medal winning leaps on the fifth and penultimate jump. Beckford actually went into gold medal position after three rounds with 8.16m after three attempts but was immediately relegated to second by Phillips who had the last jump of the round.
All three top men went past 8.20m in round five but only Beckford registered a legal leap of 8.14m in the final round.
Beckford said winning a medal at this level again was a great relief and he put it down to a move to Germany this year.
"Over the years in the World Championships I have been troubled by injuries and this year I relocated to Germany and got a new coach and manager, German Konstantin Krause. I have been getting some treatment on my hamstring and I felt real strong this year," Beckford said.
"During the past two weeks I engaged in a lot of speed work and that helped me a great deal," said Beckford who had a fine sequence of 7.99m, 8.16m, 8.12m, 8.28m and 8.14m from his last five jumps after a failure at the first.
Danny McFarlane was fourth in a personal best 48.30 seconds and Kemel Thompson, 48.51, and a surprising fifth in the men's 400m hurdles final.
The overwhelming gold medal favourite Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic did not disappoint.
He clocked a world leading 47.25 for gold as American Joey Woody with a season-best 48.18 got silver and bronze went to Greek Periklis Iakovkis in 48.24.
While McFarlane ran his best-ever time and had few complaints Thompson found it difficult to explain his below par run.
"I don't know, I can't really place my thumb on it.
I thought I was in a very good zone before the race.
During the event it never really got flowing to how I usually run. I think I recovered well enough from the semi-finals but it just did not work out today," Thompson said.
The women's sprint relay team of Lacena Golding-Clarke, Elva Goul-bourne, Beverly McDonald and Brigitte Foster go into today's final with the fourth fastest time, a season-best 43.05. They were second to France in the third semi-final heat. The host country, with Christine Arron on anchor, set a national record 42.04.
Running without three of their big guns, the United States clocked 42.03 to register the fastest qualifying time in semi-final heat one. Russia were second in 42.62. The US team in running order was Angela Williams, Chrystie Gaines, Inger Miller and Pan Am Games 100m champion Lauryn Williams.
Heat two was won by Ukraine in 43.26. The Bahamas, who ran without 100m finalist Chandra Sturrup, were eliminated in this heat after registering 43.64 for third.
Madrea Hyman went out in the first heat of the women's 1,500m semi-finals. She stayed with the field for three laps but gradually fell behind with 350 metres to go and ended up at the back in 4:13.95. Maria Cioncan of Romania won in 4:03.40 from Turkey's Sureyya Ayhan, 4:03.60.
Heat two went to Russia's Tatyana Tomashova in 4:05.38 with her compatriot Yekaterina second in 4:05:51.
