The World Athletics Championship in Helsinki has concluded after nine days of tough and wet competition. From Finland, Inas Mazhar reviews the scoreboard Paula Radcliffe finally won the major title that her talent and tenacity deserve when she ran away from the field to win the marathon through the streets of the Finnish capital in 2:20:57, the fastest time ever run in a major championship. The Briton added the world title to her super world record of 2:15:25 that she set in the London Marathon two years ago. Radcliffe was followed home, as on several occasions in the past, by Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, who was the previous world record holder, and also the defending champion. Third in the women's race was Constantina Dita-Tomescu of Romania who won her bronze in 2:23:19. At the final day of the event, Cuba's Osleidys Menéndez extended her recent domination of the javelin by winning the event's gold medal. The Cuban had her second world record of the week, 71.70 metres with her first throw. Christina Obergfoll of Germany threw a European record of 70.03 metres in round two to win the silver medal. Steffi Nerius won a second medal for Germany, a bronze with 65.96 metres. Hicham Al-Guerrouj, the four-time world and double Olympic champion was in the stands to see one of his young Moroccan compatriots follow him into the 1500 metres record books. Except that Rashid Ramzi was running for Bahrain! In an extended sprint finish after a moderate early pace, Ramzi managed to stay ahead of full- time Moroccan, world junior champion Adil Kaouch. Rui Silva, the veteran Portuguese, who Al-Guerrouj had tipped to succeed him, closed quickly to finish a close third. Ramzi's winning time of 3:37.88 was the slowest since Steve Cram won the inaugural title here in 1983. But Ramzi certainly didn't care. Ramzi created a little bit of history when he won the first ever middle distance double of the championships, taking the shorter race, the 800 metres in 1:44.24. Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy won the silver, in 1.44.51. William Yiampoy of Kenya won the struggle for third in 1.44.55. The women's 800 metres produced a worthy successor to the twice-winner Ana-Fidelia Quirot, when her Cuban compatriot, Zulia Calatayud dominated the race from start to finish. She was always on the leader's shoulder, not wasting any time and energy, like the followers, being bumped and bored. And when she made her move at the head of the straight, it was decisive. The elegant, Calatayud, won by five metres, going away, in 1:58.82. Hasna Benhassi of Morocco added World silver to the one she won at the Olympic last year, second in 1:59.42, with the best Russia, and pre-Helsinki favourite, Tatyana Adrianova in third, in 1:59.60. In the women's 1500 metres, Russia's Tatyana Tomashova won the gold medal in 4.00.35, with Yuliya Chizhenko in second in 4.00.93, and Olga Yegorova third in 4.01.46 in a Russian sweep. Benjamin Limo of Kenya won the 5000 metres. Limo strolled down the straight to win in 13.32.55. Sileshi Sihine of Ethiopia came second in 13.32.81, and Craig Mottram of Australia, striking back in the last five metres, took bronze in 13.32.96. The high jump got off to a storming start on a pleasant evening, with all 13 men clearing 2.20 metres. But by the time they got to 2.29 metres, things were slowing down -- only eight men over. Then the rot really set in. Seven men failed at 2.32 metres, leaving Olympic champion Stefan Holm of Sweden worst of that bunch. Victor Moya of Cuba and Yaroslav Rybakov shared silver on the count-back. And the last man left standing with the bar intact at 2.32 metres -- but only on the third attempt -- was Yuriy Krymarenko of the Ukraine, who won his country's only gold, indeed, only medal. The ankle injury which spoiled most of Sweden's Kajsa Bergqvist's Olympic year also threatened her high jump career, but she won with 2.02 metres, and drew personal bests out of both Chaunte Howard of the USA, 2.00 metres for silver, and Emma Green, 1.98 metres for bronze. And so to the relays. The Russians won the 4x400 metres women's relay, an emphatic win in 3.20.95, with Jamaica second on 3.23.29 and Britain third on 3.24.49, a national record. The biggest surprise of the men's 4x400 was that Christopher Brown of the Bahamas and Davian Clarke of Jamaica were right behind Jeremy Wariner with just 200 metres to go. Then Wariner woke up, and duly delivered the goods, victory and the 14th gold of the US. The Bahamas finished second as they had done to the US in Edmonton 2001. Jamaica was third. The US women's 4x100 metres quartet rubbed their men's noses in it again when they gave as smooth a display of baton changing to take the gold medals with a world leading 41.78. Jamaica, who looked as if they might challenge, made a mess of the last change-over but were well enough clear to take silver in 41.99. The Belarussian quartet outdid themselves to set a national record of 42.56 to take bronze. In the absence of the US men's sprint relay squad, who had dropped the baton at the first change-over in the heats, France, took gold in the 4x100 relay in a world leading 38.08. Trinidad & Tobago took silver in 38.10, and Olympic champions GB ran 38.37 to take bronze. No one could prevent a clean sweep by Ethiopia in the 5000 metres, not even the Chinese. The 10,000 metres champion Tirunesh Dibaba took over at the bell of the final lap. She would not be denied the double, staying ahead of her compatriots throughout the final lap, which she covered, as she had in the 10k race -- in just over 58 seconds. Tirunesh won in 14:38.59, Defar was second in 14:39.54, Elegeyehu Dibaba, the eldest sister of the 19-year-old Tirunesh, was third in 14:42.47. Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine won gold and silver for Ethiopia in the men's 10,000 metres. Bekele had already proved himself a worthy successor to his mentor, Haile Gebrselassie, but with a successful defence of his World Championships 10,000 metres title. Bekele ran the second half of the race over 40 seconds faster than the first half, and won in 27:08.33. Sihine clocked 27.08.87, and Mosop 27.08.96. So Bekele adds another world title to the nine he already owns, including an unprecedented eight in cross country, something that Gebre never achieved once. In the more explosive events, Yuliya Pechonkina finally got it right, and won a world title to go with her 400 metres hurdles world record. Pechonkina had looked good through her heats but so had the two Americans, Sandra Glover and Lashinda Demus. And it was the latter who blasted out of the blocks from lane eight, to take an early lead. But Pechonkina kept her cool, took over at the eighth hurdle, and was never troubled on the run-in. She won in 52.93, only her second time under 53 seconds. Demus won the domestic battle for silver, in 53.27, a personal best, as was the 53.32 for bronze for Glover. Bershawn Jackson had looked the best in the 400m hurdles semi-finals, and he justified that form with a narrow victory over his US colleague, James Carter, with the Japanese, Dai Tamasue adding another bronze to the one he won in Edmonton four years ago. World leader Kerron Clement who fell apart in the last couple of weeks, never came to terms with the tight bends, and even when he could have gotten third, he didn't have the impetus that carried Tamasue to the bronze. It was no contest in the women's shot as Nadezhda Ostapchuk dashed her opponents' hopes with 20.37 metres in the first round for a two and half metre lead. That lead was diminished to less than a metre by the Russian, Olga Ryabinkina, who threw 19.64 metres. But Ostapchuk responded with 20.51 metres to wrap it up at the last. Not quite as dominant as her colleague, Ivan Tikhon in the men's hammer, but easily good enough for Belarus' second gold of the championships. Ryabinkina took silver, just two centimetres ahead of Valerie Vili of New Zealand, who took bronze. Dwight Phillips wrapped up his long jump title with his first attempt, his 8.60 metres also being the best in the world this year. It was just as well his first attempt was a class ahead of the rest, because the Olympic champion proceeded to foul the rest of his jumps. Ignisious Gaisah jumped a Ghanian national record of 8.34 metres in the fourth round, but Tommi Evila of Finland who jumped 8.25 metres in the fifth, moved into the bronze medal position, and got the biggest cheer of the night. In the absence of the injured Olympic champion, Tatyana Lebedyeva, her Russian colleague, Tatyana Kotova, looked as if she might win. Until Tianna Madison of the USA, just 19 years of age, hit a personal best 6.89 metres in round five, and snatched the long jump title. Kotova was second with 6.79 metres, and a last effort by Eunice Barber wasn't good enough for gold, as it had been in Paris two years ago, but her 6.76 metres gave her bronze. Yelena Isinbayeva won the women's pole vault gold medal as well as setting a new world record of 5.01 metres. Poland's Monika Pyrek took silver with 4.60m while Pavla Hamackova of the Czech Republic won bronze with 4.50m. The Netherlands' Rens Blom cleared 5.80 metres in the pole vault to win his country's first ever gold medal in the World Athletics Championship's history. America's Brad Walker could not respond, and claimed the silver. Allyson Felix of the US won the women's 200 metres gold medal in 22.16, with Rachel Boone- Smith of the US edging France's Christine Arron. Both came in 22.31. Veronica Campbell of Jamaica came fourth in 22.38. The Olympic 400 metres champion Jeremy Wariner from the US used the impressive newcomer, Tyler Christopher of Canada as pacemaker, and hit the straight well clear. He won easily in a new personal best of 43.93, with colleague Andrew Rock coming through for silver in 44.35, also a personal best. Christopher was rewarded with bronze in 44.44, a national record. In the men's hammer Ivan Tikhon had already come a tantalisingly centimetre away from the 29-year-old world record of the great Yuri Sedykh. The Belarussian added a second world title to his personal best of 86.73 metres. And he did it with a championship best of 83.89 metres. World No 2, his colleague, Vadim Devyatovskiy duly won silver with 82.60 metres, and former Olympic champion, Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland confounded the ranking lists by taking bronze with 79.35 metres. Olga Kuzenkova of Russia won the women's hammer throw. The Olympic champion only took the lead from Yipsi Moreno of Cuba in the fifth round, with 74.03 metres. Moreno responded with 73.08 metres on her fifth throw, but Kuzenkova rubbed it in with 75.10 metres on her final attempt. Moreno duly won silver, and world record holder Tatyana Lysenko made it two medals out of three for the Russians. The 100 metres gold medallist Justin Gatlin secured his sprint titles at the double when he added the 200 metres to the 100 gold he won last weekend. His US double was the first time in 20 years. The race was dominated by the US quartet, Gatlin winning in 20.03, and being followed home by Wallace Spearmon in 20.20, defending champion John Capel in 20.31 and Tyson Gay in 20.41. There was delight and disaster in equal measure for the Americans in the women's high hurdles. Former heptathlete, and fastest of the year, Michelle Perry had built up a marginal advantage towards the end of the race, but Olympic champion, Joanna Hayes overstretched herself in trying to get on terms. She clipped the penultimate hurdle, crashed into the final one, and carried it almost to the line, which she collapsed across in tears. Perry won in 12.66, with the Jamaicans, Delloreen Ennis-London and Brigitte Foster-Hylton second and third in the same time, 12.76. Walter Davis leapt out to 17.57 metres in round three of the triple jump. Yoandri Bezantzos of Cuba responded with 17.42 in round four, and repeated in round six. That confirmed his silver. Franka Dietzch's victory in the women's discus was a triumph for tenacity. The German has been at the top since she won silver at the World Junior Championships in 1986. The wind and rain mattered little to Dietzch, proof of which was that four of her throws, with her best at 66.56 metres, were better than the 64.33 metres which won silver for Olympic champion Natalya Sadova of Russia. As far as the crowd was concerned, the javelin never really took off, a bit like Pitkömöki's spear. The Finn was never better than third. But when Vörnik coped best with the still appalling weather conditions, and threw out to 87.17 metres, just two centimetres within his season's best, in round four, that was always going to be the winning throw. The Finnish crowd duly cheered him to the rain-soaked rafters. Olympic champion Andreas Thorkidlson of Norway had shown his championship qualities by taking the lead earlier in round four, and then responded with 86.18 metres in round five. That proved to be good enough for silver. And the early leader, consistent Russian Sergey Makarov, the defending champion, held on. In the end, the US topped the table with 25 medals, followed by Russia with 20. Ethiopia was third with nine medals.
