Day 7 at the Berlin World Championships was the first day where the weather put a slight dampener on proceedings however the athletic performances were not affected though there were a few spills in the Men's 800m semis of note.
The USA's Allyson Felix is pure poetry in motion to watch. A 'whippet' of an athlete, yet devastating in delivering winning performances as she floated to a 22:04 which would no doubt have been faster if it was not for the damp track. The Beijing Olympic Champion in the Women's 200m, Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown, took silver after attempting to put the lithe American under pressure coming off the bend however Felix slipped away with what always looks like the easiest of effort. With this kind of grace one can only wish for her to tackle the 400m as she truthfully looks as though she could threaten the World Record in that distance.
Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas grabbed Bronze
And there were other performances of a major proportion on a night of exceptional surprises and those moving from Silver to Gold after a long wait.
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Earlier in the day, Russia's Sergey Kirdyapkin took Gold in the 50km Walk. With the Australian pair of Luke Adams and Jared Tallent content to provide the pace at the front end of the race. Tallent as late as 35km into the walk led by 24 seconds from the Russian who was patient before unleashing his charge. The Oz walkers imploded somewhat falling out of the medal positions to finish in 6th and 7th place respectively.
Norway's Trond Nymark timed his challenge with great intent to move up to take Silver with Spain's Jesús Angel GarcÃa taking Bronze.
Yet again a great display of race walking
Women's 1500m semisÂ
Bahrain's Maryam Yusuf Jamal won the first semi in a time of 4:03.64 to go into the final with the intent of defending her Osaka 1500m title. Britain 's Lisa Dobriskey kicked through over the last 50m to take 3rd place behind Spain's Natalia RodrÃguez while the USA 's Christin Wurth-Thomas made sure of her place by qualifying from the front. The qualifiers on time came from this heat.
Ethiopia's Gelete Burka went through to the finals after laying down her 1500m tactical approach of leading from the front to record a time of 4:10.19 which effectively ended any chance of those finishing out of the first 5 places a chance of advancing on time. New Zealand 's Nikki Hamblin was the unfortunate athlete in 6th.
Men's 800m semis
The Men's 800m semis was a bizarre affair with the highly fancied Sudanese athlete, Abubaker Kaki, yet again not making a Championship final. On this occasion it was not totally due to his lack of 'big race mentality', that he displayed in Beijing, but maybe more to the close attendance of the Netherlands Bram Som. It may have been the slightest of touches however this will no doubt be added to Som's 'legacy' of infringements on fellow athletes.
The USA's Nivk Symonds took charge of the heat after all the confusion that ensued after Kaki's fall and ran a controlled race from the front to win the heat.
Yusuf Saad Kamel won the heat with all the favourites in ahead of Russia's Yuriy Borzakovskiy went through in 2nd place and Osaka defending champ, Alfred Kirwa Yego of Kenya with South Africa 's Mbulaeni Mulaudzi went through as fastest qualifiers.
Not so lucky was Canada 's Osaka Silver medalist, Gary Reed.
Women's Discus success for Australia
Australia's Dani Samuels suprised all with her Gold winning performance in the Women's discus by twice bettering her Personal Best [PB], first in the 4th round to take the silver position from Cuban Yarelis Barrios and then in her 5th throw she set her winning throw of 65.44. Barrios threw 65.31 on her final throw to go secure her silver ahead of Grasu. Grasu had led from the 2nd round with her 65.20 distance.
Samuels secured Australia's first medal of the Championships with her superb performance and she looked so relaxed achieving it.
Men's High Jump vitory for Rybakov
So often the silver medalist, Yaroslav Rybakov of Russia, could not believe his luck when he finally won a major World Title in the High Jump after an enthralling final.
With Germany's Raul Spank in an unexpected role of a pdium finish with his PB jump of 2.32 the atmosphere was simply electrifying. The Russian won Gold on count back against Cypros athlete Kyriakos Ioannou who inturn won Silver on countbacks ahead of Spank and Poland's Sylwester Bednarek, all 4 athletes cleared 2.32
Men's 400m Final win for Merritt
The USA's LaShawn Merritt continued his dominance over compatriot Jeremy Wariner to take the 400m World Title to add to his Beijing Olympic title of 2008. Merritt proved the stronger of the two after holding off Wariner's fading challengeover the last 50m.
Yet another great day and night of wonderful athletics to underline a Championship that has provided stunning entertainment.
