Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia celebrates after the Men's Marathon at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, Oct. 5, 2019. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)
DOHA, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The penultimate day of the athletics world championships saw three meet records renewed while Lelisa Desisa led a one-two finish for Ethiopia in men's marathon here on Sunday.
The 29-year-old Desisa, who took a silver at the 2013 worlds in Moscow and finished seventh four years ago in Beijing, clocked two hours, 10 minutes, 40 seconds to claim the title.
His teammate Mosinet Geremew, the fastest entrant in the field with a career best time of 2:02:55, lagged four seconds behind to notch the silver medal. Kenya's Amos Kipruto finished third in 2:10:57.
"This is a great medal for me and for Ethiopia. It is the first for us for a long time. I am very happy to bring Ethiopia this title after so long. I did perfectly what my coaches told me and I won the race," said Desisa, who took the country's second men's marathon gold in the 36-year history of the biyearly tournament following Gezahegne Abera's 2:12:42 victory in Edmonton, Canada in 2001.
Newly crowned 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan was victorious in the 1,500m as the Dutch runner set a championships record time of three minutes and 51.95 seconds after her 10,000m victory a week ago.
"This is such an honor. I'm showing what you can do with hard work. It was amazing when I crossed the line and I saw that time," Hassan said.
"It was a hard win for me. I was just so angry with what people were saying. I've worked so hard to be on top over the years," she said.
Kenya's defending champion Faith Kipyegon had to settle for a silver in 3:54.22 to set a national record and Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia finish third in 3:54.38.
The men's shot put turned out to be a closely fought final where the record was broken three times. The 2015 Beijing world champion Joe Kovacs grabbed the title again in 22.91 meters.
His American teammate and Rio Olympic champion Ryan Crouser was pushed to second just one centimeter short of the winning mark. New Zealand's Tomas Walsh also achieved 22.90m, but had to settle for the bronze after count back.
"I just cannot be happier to get the gold medal. This everyday hard work, it just paid of. This is definitely the final which made the history," Kovacs said.
Rio Olympics silver medalist Hellen Obiri successfully defended her 5,000m title, and set a new championships record in 14:26.72. All-African champion Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, Obiri's Kenyan compatriot, came second in 14:27.49. Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany took bronze in 14:28.43.
"We have such great runners in Kenya. I worked hard to prove that we can win. It was not easy to run the championships record without the pacemakers but I felt the energy from the crowd and stayed focused," she said.
Women's triple jump saw defending champion Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela jumped to a world leading mark of 15.37m to win her country's first gold medal in Doha.
Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts took silver with 14.92m and Caterine Ibarguen of Colombia bagged bronze with 14.73m.
In the last two events of Saturday night, Jamaica and the United States won the women's and men's 4x100m relay respectively.
Jamaica took its third gold medal in Doha in 41.44 seconds while the U.S. ran an all-time second fastest time of 37.10 to win its 11th title at the worlds.
