BERLIN--The German capital usually turns quiet on a Sunday, as the building cranes and most of the shops shut down.But on the last day of the world track and field championships, the central thoroughfares remained full of shouts and murmurs with medals still at stake.
At the Brandenburg Gate in the early afternoon, Bai Xue of China won the women’s marathon in 2 hours 25 minutes 15 seconds after shaking free of Yoshimi Ozaki of Japan in the final kilometer.
Kara Goucher, in 10th, was the top finisher from the United States in a race that provided China with its first and only gold medal here.
Later at Olympic Stadium, Kenenisa Bekele and the American 4x400 relay teams put the final touches on a compelling, sometimes controversial meet by winning their latest gold medals.
Bekele’s final race here was the best of these championships. A small, elegant and resilient Ethiopian, he needed one of the gutsiest performances of his career to win the men’s 5,000 meters.
After leading most of the way, Bekele was passed with about 50 meters remaining by the defending world champion, Bernard Lagat of the United States, who has spent most of his career competing (and kicking) at shorter distances.
But Bekele managed to summon the requisite will and burst of speed to surge past Lagat once more in the final 20 meters.
“I lost to a great champion,” the 34-year-old Lagat said. “He dug way deep today to win.”
Lagat did a little digging of his own, running with four stitches in his lower left leg after being spiked in the qualifying Friday.
Though he failed to match his performance at the last world championships in 2007, when he won the 1,500 and the 5,000, he did come away with two more medals, including a bronze in the 1,500, and rinsed away some of the bitterness of his disappointing 2008 Olympics.
“I can be happy with this because I gave it my all,” Lagat said. “I gave everything I had, and so did Kenenisa.”
The margin of victory was just 0.24 of a second as Bekele won in a relatively slow time of 13:17.09.
“It made him the first man to win the 5,000 and the 10,000 at the same world championships, and it came after his Olympic double over the same distances last year in Beijing.
His victory gives Bekele eight individual victories in global championships at age 27.
In normal circumstances, Bekele would be his sport’s man of the moment, but this is the age of Usain Bolt.
It is an era of redefining speed and human limits with, track enthusiasts hope, no sobering news to follow from the drug-testing laboratories that have become checks on the public’s collective sense of wonder.
But Bolt, the so-far irrepressible Jamaican, has never failed a drug test, and according to the International Association of Athletics Federations, he did not fail one here.
He smashed his world records in the 100 and the 200 meters, giving global numerologists two new figures to chew on (9.58 seconds and 19.19 seconds).
And Bolt was presented a piece of the Berlin Wall by city authorities on Sunday in honor of his achievements.
What’s next?
Perhaps the 400, which he professes not to enjoy.
Maybe even the long jump, where experts say his baseline speed could quickly lead to world-class status.
Whatever it is, Bolt’s achievements have clearly transcended his sport, with a thicket of cellphone cameras and screams from young fans punctuating his movements away from the track at Olympic Stadium.
“I do believe it is correct,” Bekele said of the emphasis on Bolt. “No other athlete has broken two world records at one time in that manner.”
But Bekele added that “we should not be forgotten either, even if you don’t treat us equally.”
With Bolt leading the way, Jamaica finished second in the medal standings behind the United States, with seven gold medals and 13 total medals.
The Americans, long the sport’s superpower, showed signs of slipping, particularly in the Jamaica-dominated short sprints, where the Americans’ only victory came from Allyson Felix in the women’s 200.
The Americans’ 10 gold medals were a significant drop from the 14 they won in both the 2005 and the 2007 world championships.
Their total of 22 medals was also a drop, but there were some pleasant surprises, including gold medals in the decathlon from Trey Hardee and in the women’s long jump from Brittney Reese, who won with a season-best leap of 23 feet 3½ inches (7.10 meters).
Doug Logan, the chief executive for USA Track and Field, said the overall strength of the American team was an effective rebuttal to Bolt’s individual brilliance, and there were also encouraging results in the middle-distance events, with three Americans in the 1,500 men’s final and three more Sunday in the women’s 1,500.
Natalia Rodriguez of Spain crossed the finish line first in that metric mile, only to be disqualified later for having bumped Gelete Burka of Ethiopia on the final curve, a collision that sent Burka sprawling to the blue track.
The gold medal went to Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain, the silver to Lisa Dobriskey of Britain and the bronze to Shannon Rowbury of the United States, which was the first medal in the event from an American woman in a decade.
As expected, the Americans also won gold medals in the 4x400 relays.
