Trey Hardee of the United States won the decathlon gold medal yesterday at the World Championships for his first major title.

Hardee posted personal bests in three of the 10 events and collected 8,790 points for the gold medal, his highest total to date and the best in the world this year.

"That was a goal of mine this week - to smile and just to have fun," Hardee said.

"You got to look at the big picture and overall it's a decathalon PR."

Leonel Suarez of Cuba, the Olympic bronze medallist, took the silver with 8,640 points after a fast time in the 1,500-metre race, the final event. He moved past Aleksandr Pogorelov of Russia, who had to settle for the bronze with 8,528 points, a personal best.

Personal best

"I am very young, so I can try to win the world title in two years," the 21-year-old Suarez said. "After my bronze last year in the Olympics, I now improved to silver."

On a sweltering day, the 25-year-old American secured the victory with a huge performance in the javelin when he improved his personal best in each of the three throws and a strong pole vault.

His previous personal record was 64.12 metres.

Already leading after seven events, Hardee first threw 65.20 metres. He followed with 66.86 and then improved even more in the third and final effort by throwing 68.00. By the end of the penultimate event in the two-day competition, Hardee had a comfortable lead and could afford to run the 1,500 about six seconds outside his personal best and still capture the title.

Hardee, who had led after three events, returned to the lead after seven by running the fastest time in the 110-metre hurdles - 13.86 seconds, his fastest of the year. He never dropped from the lead position again. The American then followed with a throw of 48.08 metres in the discus, another best of the year.

Hardee cleared 5.20 metres in the pole vault, the best of the day. He had no misses at all five heights until 5.30, five centimetres higher than his previous personal best.

Then came the javelin, which allowed the American to stay in the lead ahead of the 1,500.

Hardee did not finish last year's Olympic decathlon. But this year he was runner-up in the prestigious decathlon competition in Goetzis, Austria.