Bekele

Berlin: Kenenisa Bekele Thursday took one more step towards establishing himself as the greatest long distance runner to have come out of Africa when he crossed first in his heat for the 5,000.

Ethiopian Bekele, who won the 10,000 Monday, was dominant again as he started his chase for a double.

The Ethiopian great won a long-distance double at the Beijing Olympics and adding two more gold in Berlin would go a long way towards securing his legend.

In search for a second too was Bahrain’s Yusuf Saad Kamel.

Running on two hours’ sleep, Kamel followed up victory in the 1,500 late Wednesday with a win and easy qualification for the semi-finals in the 800.

“I did not sleep Wednesday night because I was very excited,” said the Kenyan-born Bahraini, the son of two-time 800 world champion Billy Konchellah.

Favourites Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia and Abubakere Kaki of Sudan qualified alongside him.

Olympic hurdles champion Dayron Robles had a bad day, however.

The world-record holder had been slowed by a hamstring injury the past few weeks and after hitting the first three hurdles in his semi-final, he cried out in agony, grabbed his leg and slowed to a stop.

Robles, who was unable to lean or take any pressure on his left leg, had to be helped off the track.

In the men’s pole vault, another Olympic champion was in trouble.

Steve Hooker made it to Saturday’s final on a bad leg with his only jump of 5.65 metres, but was unsure whether he could continue.

“I am not sure about my appearance in the final,” Hooker said.

“It is just that I am not healthy.”

Defending champion Brad Walker of the United States pulled out of the event before qualifying with a pelvic injury.

Olympic champion Melanie Walker of Jamaica won the gold medal in the women’s 400m hurdles Thursday in the second fastest time in history.

Walker finished in 52.42 seconds to win by a big margin over Lashinda Demus of the United States, who took the silver in 52.96.

Josanne Lucas of Trinidad and Tobago earned the bronze in 53.20.

Walker’s time was behind only Yuliya Pechenkina’s world record of 52.34, which the Russian ran in August 2003.

Demus was very close behind Walker coming out of the bend but the Jamaican pulled away before the final hurdle and powered home.

Demus, who also won the silver at the 2005 Helsinki worlds, came into the race with the fastest time in the world this year at 52.63