Belarus hammers home a victory 28. August 07

World Hammer Champion, Ivan Tsikhan, has claimed his third World Championship gold with a World leading throw of 83.63m

The Belarussian's impressive winning streak has brought disappointment to the thousands of Japanese fans filling Nagai stadium, hoping to celebrate gold for local Hammer-hero, Koji Murofushi.

Despite a season's best throw of 80.46m, the reigning Olympic Champion was no competition to the European trio of Tsikhan, Primož Kozmus (SLO) and Libor Charfreitag (SVK). In a nail biting finish, Kozmus took silver with his final 82.29m throw, and Charfreitag managed to continue his superb form from yesterday's qualifying heats to narrowly beat Bellarus' defending silver medallist, Vadim Devyatovskiy, with a season's best of 81.60m.

On the track, the Women's 3000m Steeplechase saw a double victory for the Russians. Defending silver medallist, Yekaterina Volkova crossed the finish in 09:06:57 - a new Championship record, followed by European silver medallist and World Indoor record holder, Tatyana Petrova, with a best time of 9:09.19.

World record holder Gulnara Samitova-Galkina, set a fast pace from the outset, but through the 1,000m mark she began to slow, finishing in a disappointing seventh. While European Cup silver medallist, Sophie Duarte, finished in fifth position, setting a new French record of 9:27.51.

The second 100m semi-final saw Christine Arron (FRA) and reigning European Champion, Kim Gevaert (BEL) qualify with season's best times of 11.04 and 11.06 respectively. Both Europeans will now race for the title of World's fastest woman against race favorites, Veronica Campbell (JAM) and Torri Edwards (USA).

There is plenty more action to come with the titles of Triple Jump and Women's 100m Champion still up-for-grabs.

european-athletics.org