American Becomes Youngest Triple Jump World Champ In History

Posted September 4th, 2011 at 2:25 pm (UTC-5)
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A 21-year-old American is now the youngest triple jump world champion in history.

Christian Taylor, an athlete from the University of Florida, struck gold at the last day of the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championship in Daegu, South Korea. He leapt 17.96 meters to take the gold medal, the fifth-best triple jump of all time.

Great Britain's Phillips Idowu took silver, and American Will Claye took bronze.

World-famous Usain Bolt and his Jamaican 4×100 meters teammates took gold on the last day of the championships, beating their previous world record with a new record of 37.04 seconds.

Earlier in the championships, the IAAF had disqualified Bolt in the 100 meters for false starting. The IAAF said Sunday it had no plans to change its controversial false start rule, which removes runners from a competition if they start before the gun goes off.

The reigning women's 800 meters European champ, Russian Mariya Savinova, took gold at this year's world championship with a time of 1 minute 55.87 seconds. She beat South African track star Caster Semenya, who had spent the last year entrenched in a controversy about her true gender. The IAAF put an end to the dispute by clearing her for participation.