PHOTOS: South Africa's Van Niekerk stuns champions to win 400m

Wayde Van Niekerk of South Africa crosses the finish line to win ahead of third placed Kirani James of Grenada the men's 400m final during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Wayde van Niekerk ran the fastest 400 metres since 2007 to become the first South African to win a World Championship sprint title on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old went hard from the start and held off reigning champion La Shawn Merritt of the United States down the home straight to claim the title in 43.48 seconds.

A personal best of 43.65 was worth no better than silver for Merritt, who stayed on the South African's shoulder around the final bend but could not find enough gas in the last 50 metres to overhaul him.

Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada finished third to claim bronze in 43.78, his best run of the year.

Czech Hejnova first woman to retain 400m hurdles title

Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic holds her national flag after winning the women's 400 metres hurdles final at the IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

The Czech Republic's Zuzana Hejnova became the first woman to successfully defend her 400 metres hurdles title after 14 editions of the World Championships when she won gold at the Bird's Nest Stadium.

She produced a dominating and controlled performance to come home two metres clear of Shamier Little, the United States champion, in a world leading 53.50 seconds.

Little, the 20-year-old U.S. collegiate champion, took silver on her worlds debut in 53.94, with her team mate Cassandra Tate winning bronze with 54.02.

The threat from Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer vanished at the second hurdle, where the Commonwealth champion blundered and lost all momentum and was never able to get back into the race, trailing home last of the eight finalists.

The 28-year-old Hejnova, drawn in lane five, was clearly in the lead by the time of the seventh flight and held a three-metre advantage into the home straight which was never seriously challenged.

Silva soars to claim women's World pole vault title

Winner Yarisley Silva of Cuba (centre), second placed Fabiana Murer of Brazil (left) and Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou of Greece celebrate after the women's pole vault final at the 15th IAAF World Championships in Beijing. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Cuba's Yarisley Silva needed a jump of 4.90 metres to win a thrilling women's pole vault contest and claim her first major global title.

Pushed all the way by Brazil's Fabiana Murer and Greece's Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou, the London Olympics silver medallist won gold on her third attempt at the winning height before failing three times at 5.01m.

Silva needed all three goes to get over at 4.70 and join an unprecedented seven women going for 4.80.

Murer and Silva cleared 4.85 at the first attempt to ultimately leave Kyriakopoulou with bronze.

With the noisy crowd roaring her on, Silva slid over the bar at 4.90 to win the title. Murer's clearance at 4.85 was a South American record and she took silver.

Kenya's Jepkemoi wins women's 3,000m steeplechase

Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi of Kenya (left), Gesa Felicitas Krause of Germany and Habiba Ghribi of Tunisia (right) celebrate finishing first, third and second respectively in the women's 3,000 metres steeplechase final during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Hyvin Jepkemoi maintained Kenya's monopoly of the 3,000 metres steeplechase when she proved to be tougher than all her rivals in a hard-fought final lap to win the world title.

Jepkemoi, 23, produced a sub-66 seconds last 400 and had to battle off the final barrier against the favourite, Tunisia's Habiba Ghribi, and Germany's Gesa Krause, to take Kenya's sixth gold of the Beijing championships in 9 minutes 19.11 seconds.

Ghribi, the runner-up at the 2012 London Olympics and 2011 world championships, had to settle for silver once more as the Kenyan passed on her outside.

Ghribi clocked 9:19.24, to Krause’s bronze-winning 9:19.25, a personal best. "I think this victory will change my life for sure," Jepkemboi told reporters.

Yego wins Javelin for Kenya's first field gold

The Indian team awaits a review decision in the third one-dayer against England in Nottingham. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images

Julius Yego continued Kenya's dominance of the world athletics championships by winning his country's fifth gold medal with a monster 92.72 meters throw in a dramatic men's javelin final.

It is the first time that Kenya, a nation noted for its distance-running prowess, has won a world title in a field event, and Yego's victory comes a day after Nicholas Bett won the 400m hurdles title, the shortest distance over which any Kenyan has become a world champion.

In an event which has long been a European stranglehold, there was a one-two for Africa, as Egypt's Ihab El Sayed took the silver medal with his 88.99m second-round effort.

Finland's Tero Pitkamaki gave Europea some consolation by taking bronze with his 87.64m best effort. After the first two rounds in the Bird's Nest Stadium, Yego, winner of Commonwealth Games gold last year, was trailing Rohler and El Sayed.

For the third round, Yego threw himself to the ground at the end of his run-up, and his spear hung in the stormy Beijing evening sky before landing eight cm short of the championship record, set in 2001 by the world record-holder, Jan Zelezny. Yego's throw is the longest anywhere since then and beats the Commonwealth record held by Briton Steve Backley since 1992.

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