Reese, 4x400 relay squads win gold as Berlin World Championships conclude

For Immediate Release
Sunday, August 23, 2009

Contact:
Tom Surber
USA Track & Field
Media Information Manager
317-713-4690; Tom.Surber@usatf.org


Reese, 4x400 relay squads win gold as Berlin World Championships conclude




Berlin - Brittney Reese and Team USA's 4x400m relay squads won gold, Bernard Lagat won his second medal, and Shannon Rowbury won 1,500m bronze Sunday evening at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics at the 1936 Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany.


Reese wins long jump gold medal


Two-time USA Outdoor champion and 2008 Olympic Games fifth-place finisher Brittney Reese (Gulfport, Miss.) has been the top women's long jumper throughout this outdoor season, and she proved it again this afternoon when she won the gold medal on her third attempt when she soared to 7.10 meters/23-feet 3.50 inches.


For Reese her winning leap was a personal best and the farthest jump in the world this year. Reese also owns the second (7.06m/23-2) and third (6.99m/22-11.25) best jumps this outdoor season.

2009 USA Outdoor Championships runner-up Brianna Glenn (Tucson, Ariz.) competed in her first world outdoor championships final where she placed ninth with a best of 6.59m/21-7.50.


Lagat takes second Berlin medal

2007 world outdoor 1,500m and 5,000m champion and two-time Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat (Tucson, Ariz.) won the silver medal in the 5,000 meters after a tremendous battle with Ethiopian 5,000m and 10,000m world record holder Kenenisa Bekele.


Lagat, who won the 1,500m bronze medal earlier this week, ran well despite being spiked during 5,000m qualifying, was in the lead pack throughout the race, along with 2007 world championships fourth-place finisher and U.S. two-mile record holder Matt Tegenkamp (Portland, Ore.).


The final 150 meters set up as a battle between Lagat and Bekele for the gold medal. They were even going into the final turn, until Bekele edged ahead with 70 meters remaining. Lagat pursued as best he could, but Bekele beat him to the finish line in 13:17.09. Lagat stopped the clocks in 13:17.33. Tegenkamp finished eighth in 13:20.23. 2009 USA Outdoor Championships 5,000m runner-up Chris Solinsky (Madison, Wisc.) finished 12th in 13:25.87.


Rowbury wins women's 1,500m bronze medal


Two-time USA champion and 2008 Olympic Games seventh place finisher Shannon Rowbury (San Francisco, Calif.) posted the best finish by an American in a world outdoor championships women's 1,500-meter final in 10 years. And then it got better.


Rowbury was up near the front the entire way and trailed Great Britain's Lisa Dobriskey by a few yards down the final stretch. Although Rowbury couldn't catch her, she finished fourth in 4:04.18, which is the highest finish by an American in this event since Regina Jacobs placed second in 1999 in Seville, Spain.

However, during the last lap, race winner Natalia Rodriguez of Spain tripped Ethiopia's Gelete Burka from behind. Following the race Rodriguez was disqualified and Maryam Yusuf Jamal (BRN) was declared the winner (4:03.74). Lisa Dobriskey of Great Britain (4:03.75) was awarded the silver medal, and Rowbury became the bronze medalist.
2009 USA Outdoor Champs runner-up Christin Wurth-Thomas (Springdale, Ark.) also had a strong race in finishing fifth in 4:06.19. 2008 Olympian Anna Willard (Ann Arbor, Mich.) finished sixth in 4:06.19.


This marks the first time ever that three U.S. women (Rowbury, Wurth-Thomas, Willard) have ever finished in the top ten in this event.


No mercy in men's 4x400m relay final


If the men's 4x400m relay had been a boxing match, it would've been stopped after two rounds.

Two-time Olympic Games 400m hurdles gold medalist Angelo Taylor (Atlanta, Ga.) ran a strong lead leg before handing the baton to 2009 world outdoor championships silver medalist Jeremy Wariner.


By the time Wariner was finished with his second leg run, he had extended Team USA's lead to a whopping 20 meters, and the suspense was over. It was more of the same during the third leg by 2009 world 400m hurdles champion Kerron Clement (Los Angeles, Calif.), who kept the margin in the neighborhood of 20 meters. Reigning world and Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt was a lonely competitor as he completed his anchor leg and ended the 2009 World Championships of Athletics when he crossed the finish line in the world leading time of 2:57.86.


Team USA women's 4x400m relay quartet dominates


2009 USA Outdoor Championships runner-up Debbie Dunn (Norfolk, Va.) got the U.S. off to a tremendous start in the women's 4x400m final. Dunn handed a 10-yard lead to three-time world outdoor 200m champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist Allyson Felix (Santa Clarita, Calif.).
Felix extended the lead early on in her run, and two-time world champs silver medalist Lashinda Demus (Palmdale, Calif.) had a 12-meter margin when she began her third leg.


2009 world 400m champion and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Sanya Richards (Austin, Tex.) extended the margin to 20 meters with 200 meters to go, and she crossed the finish line securing Team USA the gold medal in 3:17.83, which is the fastest time in the world this year and the fastest time globally since 1993. It is also the sixth-fastest time in history.


Symmonds finishes sixth in two-lap final

Ten men running in eight lanes answered the gun for the men's 800m final and that group included two-time USA Outdoor champion and 2008 Olympian Nick Symmonds.

Symmonds ran at the front during the first lap and traded a couple elbows with Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy in front of the finish line just prior to beginning the second lap.

Symmonds sat in second place until there were 80 meters remaining when he was passed by Alfred Kirwa Yego (KEN), Yusuf Saad Kamel (BRN) and Borzakovskiy. Symmonds finished the race in sixth place (1:45.71), which is the highest finish by an American at a world outdoor championships since Rich Kenah won the bronze medal in 1997.


Team USA Medal Table - 2009 World Championships in Athletics


Gold (10)
Christian Cantwell (Columbia, Mo.), men's shot put, 22.03m/72-3.50
Sanya Richards (Austin, Tex.), women's 400 meters, 49.00
Kerron Clement (Gainesville, Fla.) men's 400m hurdles, 47.91
Trey Hardee (Austin, Tex.) men's decathlon, 8,790 points
Allyson Felix (Santa Clarita, Calif.) women's 200 meters, 22.02LaShawn Merritt (Suffolk, Va.) men's 400 meters (44.06)
Dwight Phillips (Snellville, Ga.) men's long jump (8.54 meters/28 feet .75 inch)
Brittney Reese (Gulfport, Miss.) women's long jump, 7.10 meters/23-3.50
Team USA women's 4x400m relay, 3:17.83
Debbie Dunn (Norfolk, Va.), Allyson Felix (Santa Clarita, Calif.), Lashinda Demus (Palmdale, Calif.), Sanya Richards (Austin, Tex.), Natasha Hastings (Los Angeles, Calif.), Jessica Beard (College Station, Tex.)
Team USA men's 4x400m relay, 2:57.86
Angelo Taylor (Atlanta, Ga.), Jeremy Wariner (Waco, Tex.), Kerron Clement (Los Angeles, Calif.), LaShawn Merritt (Suffolk, Va.), Lionel Larry (Compton, Calif.), Bershawn Jackson (Savoy, Ill.)

Silver (6)
Tyson Gay (Clermont, Fla.), men's 100 meters, 9.71
Chelsea Johnson (Los Angeles, Calif.), women's pole vault, 4.65m/15-3
Lashinda Demus (Palmdale, Calif.), women's 400m hurdles, 52.96
Terrence Trammell (Atlanta, Ga.), men's 110m hurdles, 13.15
Jeremy Wariner (Waco, Tex.), men's 400 meters, 44.60
Bernard Lagat (Tucson, Ariz.) men's 5,000m,13:17.33

Bronze (6)
Carmelita Jeter (Inglewood, Calif.) women's 100 meters, 10.90
Bershawn Jackson (Savoy, Ill.) men's 400m hurdles, 48.23
Bernard Lagat (Tucson, Ariz.) men's 1,500 meters, 3:36.20
Wallace Spearmon (College Station, Tex.) men's 200 meters, 19.85
David Payne (Covington, Ky.) men's 110m hurdles, 13.15
Shannon Rowbury (San Francisco, Calif.) women's 1,500 meters, 4:04.18

Team USA won more gold medals than any other country (10)...2nd place Jamaica (7)

Team USA won more medals than any other country (22)...2nd place Jamaica (13)

Team USA dominated the placing table with 231 points...2nd place Russia (154)


For complete results, quotes and Team USA reports, visit www.usatf.org.

Fans can watch Team USA on national television broadcasts on NBC and Versus, or online via live, daily Webcast at www.universalsports.com. For complete TV listings, visit http://www.usatf.org/events/2009/IAAFWorldOutdoorChampionships/mediaCoverage.asp.


For more information on Team USA at the World Outdoor Championships, visit http://www.usatf.org/events/2009/IAAFWorldOutdoorChampionships/.






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