Brandon Simpson of Jamaica winning the men's 400 metres at the Brussels Golden League athletics meet (Memorial Ivo Van Damme) at the King Baudouin stadium last night. Simpson clocked a personal best 44.70 seconds. - Reuters
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)
JAMAICA'S WORLD Championships 400-metre finalist Brandon Simpson blitzed his way to a career-best 44.70 seconds to win the men's event at the Van Damme Memorial yesterday.
Simpson, who finished sixth in the final at the World Championships in Helsinki last month in 45.01, shaved his previous best of 44.76 he recorded at the Olympics last year to score a close win over Briton Tim Benjamin, who clocked 44.74.
Grenadian Alleyne Francique finished third in 44.84, the same time as Jamaica's other entrant in the event, Michael Blackwood. The Bahamas' Christopher Brown finished fifth in 45.55 seconds.
A second-place finish by triple jump world champion Trecia Smith and Dwight Thomas' 10.11 seconds third-place effort in the 100m highlighted other Jamaican performances.
Russian Tatyana Lebedeva won, clinching her fifth Golden League victory and moved within one win of the US$1 million jackpot. Lebedeva took the lead on her first jump, and made 14.94 metres on her penultimate jump to keep alive her challenge for the richest prize in athletics.
Jamaica's Smith, the only real challenger, was second at 14.76.
SOLE CONTENDER
The jackpot goes to athletes winning all six Golden League meets. After four, Lebedeva was the only athlete in contention. The final Golden League meet is on September 4 in Berlin.
Lebedeva didn't compete in her final at the World Championships in Helsinki two weeks ago because of a nagging Achilles problem.
Olympic and world champion Justin Gatlin fought back from a slow start to win the 100m in 9.99 seconds, beating France's Ronald Pognon (10.05) and Thomas. U.S. veteran Maurice Greene finished last in a disappointing 10.56.
"I am working on my start," Gatlin said. "Once I have a good start, I think I can go to boundaries that no other man has been to."
Christine Arron won her fourth of five Golden League races, winning the 100m in 10.97 and holding off Me'Lisa Barber of the United States and Chandra Sturrup of The Bahamas.
World champion Lauryn Williams and Jamaican silver medallist Veronica Campbell skipped the meet.
BEKELE'S NEW RECORD
Meanwhile, Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele set a world record in the 10,000 metres, breaking his record by almost three seconds.
Running on his own for almost half the race, Bekele finished the race in 26 minutes, 17.53 seconds, faster than his time in Ostrava in June 2004 by 2.78 seconds.
Also, Russian countrywoman Yelena Isinbayeva won the pole vault but failed to set a world record when she missed three attempts at 5.02 metres, one centimetre higher than her record at the World Championships.
In the absence of world champion Ladji Doucoure and Olympic champion Liu Xiang, veteran Allen Johnson won the 110m hurdles for the first time in his last six races, edging another American, Dominique Arnold, in 13.16.
World champion Saif Saaeed Shaheen extended his unbeaten streak in the steeplechase to two dozen races over three years by winning in a season's best time.
