Discus gold
August 30, 2011
Germany's Robert Harting has successfully defended his title as the world champion in discus, winning gold at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old threw the discus a distance of 68.97 meters, convincingly ahead of Estonian Gerd Kanter (66.95 m) and Ehsan Hadadi of Iran (66.08 m). Harting also won the gold medal at the last world athletics championships in Berlin in 2009.
Despite a knee injury, Harting dominated the competition from the start - at the end he stripped off his shirt and jumped for joy round the stadium.
"I'm pretty surprised myself," Harting told German public television. "My knee was quite painful."
Harting collected the ninth world championship gold for German discus players since 1987 - but it was only the first gold medal for a German at this year's World Championships.
Medal haul
After a disappointing eighth place in Barcelona, fellow discus thrower Nadine Müller performed better in South Korea. She managed to win silver in the women's competition with a throw of 65.97 meters, behind China's Li Yanfeng (66.52 m) but ahead of Cuban Yarelis Barrios (65.3 m).
Martina Strutz broke her own Germany record by two centimeters in the pole vault, jumping to a height of 4.8 meters. But Strutz had to settle for silver after her Brazilian rival Fabiana Murer managed a jump of 4.85 meters.
Meanwhile, German Jennifer Oeser added bronze to the silver she won in 2009, with 6,572 points in the heptathlon. That event was won by Tatyana Chernova of Russia, who claimed her first major heptathlon title with a 2011 world leading 6,880 points. Britain's Jessica Ennis had to settle for silver with 6,751 after a javelin disaster.
Author: Joanna Impey (AFP, AP)
Editor: Martin Kuebler