BERLIN, Germany:

Torrential rain and cooler temperatures that descended on the IAAF World Championships in Athletics (WCA) could not stop Jamaica's continuing onslaught on the medals. But it may have at least impacted the outcome of the only final the country entered yesterday.

Heavy showers, which pounded the Olympic Stadium here for much of the afternoon, forced WCA organisers to push back the race schedule by roughly 45 minutes. And while the rain had stopped by the time competitors in the men's 4x100 metres relay heats and the women's 200 metres final took the track, there had been significant interruption in their warm-up routines.

Some Jamaican athletes claimed the preparation adjustments and delay did not affect their performance; others believed it did.

"Maybe to some extent," said Veronica Campbell-Brown, who finished second to American Allyson Felix in the 200 metres, the only final contested by Jamaicans yesterday. "We had to start warm-ups and stop."

Warm up

As a result, Campbell-Brown, who clocked 22.35 seconds to Felix's 22.02, said she was affected "maybe a little bit".

The delay caused the athletes in her event, which included Jamaicans Simone Facey and Anneisha McLaughlin, to possibly enter the track with less time to get ready than normal.

"We didn't get to warm up properly on the curve," Campbell-Brown said.

That part of the race was a decisive factor in the 200 final.

Felix has long acknowledged that Campbell-Brown won the last two 200 Olympic titles because she was quicker than the American coming off the bend. Yesterday was a bit different. At the start of the race Felix, running in lane six, admitted that "Veronica was immediately on me" from lane five. But the Jamaican could not press home her advantage and Felix, known for the stronger latter part of the race, came off the turn ahead of Campbell-Brown and streaked to the gold.

Personal best

Yet the champion, too, admitted the delay caused by the weather affected her performance as well.

"The conditions definitely played a role," said Felix.

While sixth-place finisher Facey (22.80) said the temperature, which fell into the 60s by race time, "didn't really affect" her because she "kept warm, kept my legs going" during the warm-ups, McLaughlin believed the opposite.

"I'm not a person to run in cold conditions," said McLaughlin, who was timed in 22.62 for fifth after twice beating her personal best in the two earlier rounds. "I'm glad I didn't have an asthma attack. I think it had a great impact on the time. If it was as warm as (Thursday, when Jamaica's Usain Bolt shattered the world record in the men's 200) I think the (top finishing) girls would have run in the 21s."

The men's 4x100 team appeared to have an easier time dealing with the conditions.

Lerone Clarke, Michael Frater, Steve Mullings and Dwight Thomas finished second in their heat behind Italy in 38.60 to put Jamaica in the final. Only Clarke said he was thrown off significantly by the temperature and delay.

"For me, I warmed up and had to sit down," the lead-off man explained. "I was a little bit cold, a little bit more sluggish than I'd normally be."

Yet the consensus of athletes and coaches was that no one really gained much advantage by the delay caused by the weather, or the falling temperatures.

Lance Brauman, who coaches Campbell-Brown, believed "it affected everybody the same".

"You can tell by the slow times," Brauman said.

Felix said she did not care where the clock stopped in the final, only that the gold medal was hers. However, she added that the WCA win helped the "healing" of her disappointment losing to Campbell-Brown at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

She said she would "trade in" her three WCA gold medals in the 200 for Campbell-Brown's two in the event from the Olympics.

The Jamaican silver medallist, meanwhile, did not use the delay or weather as an excuse for losing to Felix. Instead, Campbell-Brown focused on her own accomplishment in a season plagued by injuries which caused her to miss several weeks of training.

Injury-riddled season

"I think it takes a true champion to come out and perform the way I did," she said after the final.

As for losing to Felix again at the WCA, Campbell-Brown just shook her head and smiled before ticking off the three consecutive second-place finishes. In 2005, she was second to the American after running nearly 20 metres in an adjoining lane. In 2007, she competed without having coach Brauman's on-hand help. Yesterday capped an injury-riddled season.

"It seems like it's always something," said Campbell-Brown, "but I just have to keep trying."