Five gold medals were awarded Wednesday at the World Athletics championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Kenyans took two of the medals; Germans took two others; and a Moroccan woman also took home gold.
Nezha Bidouane of Morocco won the gold medal in the women's 400-meter hurdles, defeating Yuliya Nosova of Russia and Pernia Daimi of Cuba in 53.04.
Lars Riedel of Germany won the men's discus gold medal for the fifth time, with a throw of 69 meters-72 centimeters. Speaking through a translator, Reidel says his success is largely because of a disciplined training program in Germany. "The teaching of the technique discus throwing has been approached in a very efficient way in Germany," she said. "And, so, then, of course, if you have good discus throwers somebody on the top who gets a good title, then of course the young ones come and they grow and again they get the same good teaching. So that's probably why so many good discus throwers are coming out of Germany."
Another German, Martin Buss, won the high jump, clearing 2 meters-36 centimeters.
The men's 3,000 meter steeplechase world title went to Kenya's Reuben Kosgei, running 8:15.16. Kosgei, the Olympic champion, told VOA Sports he pushed the pace to win the gold. "I was planning to race as before, because I wanted to be world champion," he said. "That's why I was planning to push the pace high and then it was not so high. And then I decided to pull away in the last lap."
Another Kenyan, Charles Kamathi, won the 10,000 meters by passing world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia in the last 200 meters. Gebrselassie had undergone surgery for a foot injury after last year's Olympics. After Wednesday night's race, the Ethiopian said that he did his best to win, but could not catch the Kenyan. "I tried all my effort until the last moment," he said. "But the last 100-meters it was really incredible. I had full confidence to win, but the last 100 meters I was really shocked."
Four gold medals are up for grabs Thursday the men's 110-meter hurdles, the men's pole vault, the women's 20-kilometer walk and the men's 200-meters.