Germany's leading pole-vaulter Raphael Holzdeppe couldn't defend his world championship title in Beijing, but he did take a silver medal as top Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie once again failed to impress at the Worlds.

With Lavillenie out at the 5.90 meter stage, Holzdeppe cleared the height at the last time of asking to secure second spot. Winner was Canada's Shawnacy Barber, who took gold by clearing the same height in fewer attempts. Polish teammates Piotr Lisek and Pawel Wojciechowski shared bronze with Lavillenie.

Following on from his bronze in the London Olympics and gold in the 2013 World Championships, Holzdeppe now has all three possible colors in his trophy cabinet. Germany's Tobias Scherbath finished seventh.

Joyous Jamaica

After Usain Bolt's heroics on Sunday, fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce secured gold in the women's 100 meters in a time of 10.76. The current title holder, with her hair dyed black and green and with five daisies stuck into them to match the national Jamaican colors, lifted her hand to the sky just before the line as she became the first woman ever to win three 100 meters world titles. In second was Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, who surprised many by breaking the national record a second time in the space of two hours to take silver in 10.81 seconds. Bronze went to American Tori Bowie.

In the women's triple jump, Germany's Kristin Gierisch achieved the best finish of a German female triple jumper in 22 years, but remained a long way from the podium in eighth. Colombia's Caterine Ibarguen comfortably retained her title, as the 31-year-old stretched her winning streak to 29 competitions by managing a best of 14.90 metres. Israel's Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko took silver with a national record of 14.78m, becoming the first ever woman to win a medal for Israel at the athletics world championships. Olympic champion Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan won bronze.

Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot won back the women's 10,000m world title on Monday, producing a commanding last-lap surge for victory just a year after starting a family, with a time of 31 minutes, 41.41 seconds. Further Kenyan success came in the form of Ezekiel Kemboi, who won his fourth world steeplechase gold ahead of three of his countrymen.

Three German men qualified for the javelin final tomorrow, including Andreas Hofmann who won the semifinal throwing 86.14 meters.

jh/ (AFP)