Tripe gold

Usain Bolt has become the third man ever to get triple sprint gold at the worlds, after winning the 4x100 meters with the Jamaican relay team.

It wasn't a world record, but when the Jamaican relay team won the gold in 37.31 seconds at the championships in Berlin on Saturday, team member Usain Bolt reached another athletic milestone. After winning the 100 meters and 200 meters earlier this week, both in world record times, Bolt now has two big event title trebles. At the Beijing Olympics just one year ago he won gold in all three races as well. The Jamaican team's 37.31 seconds run on Saturday was a championship record, but was not able to beat out their own world record from the Olympics of 37.10.

In the women's 4x100 meters relay, the Jamaicans also took gold, with 42.06 seconds. Both the men's and women's team effectively won by walkover, with their biggest rivals, the Americans, missing from the competition. The American men were disqualified after winning their heat on Friday for a handover outside the exchange zone.

While the women were favorites to make it into the final, Alexandria Anderson had an awkward handover to Muna Lee in the semi-final that left Lee on the ground clutching her hamstring. She was taken off the track in a stretcher, and the team did not finish the race.

The Bahamas took silver with 42.29 while the full house cheered the German's across the finish line at 42.87 for bronze.

The Germans had more reason to cheer when defending champion and hometown girl Betty Heidler won silver in the women's hammer throw. Her throw of 77.12 meters was a new German record, but couldn't beat Poland's Anita Wlodarczyk's 77.96 meters, a new world record. It was the third world record of the championships so far, along with Bolt's 100m and 200m sprints.

Sunday is the ninth and last day of the competition with finals in the women's long jump and 1500 meters, as well as in the men's 5000 meters.

hf/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Nigel Tandy