BEIJING — American Ashton Eaton retained the decathlon world title Saturday and broke his own world record with a score of 9,045 points. Eaton's previous world record was 9,039, set at the US Olympic Trials in Oregon in 2012. The silver medal went to Canada's Damian Warner, with a national record total of 8,695 and German Rico Freimuth took bronze on 8,561. There had been little doubt through the second day's events that Eaton would win gold and it was all about whether he could better his world record. The 27-year-old needed to run 4:18.25 or faster in 1,500m to score the 824 points needed to break the record. After two grueling days and the nine previous events, Eaton set off with a carefully-paced run and after a hard-fought final lap he stopped the clock at 4:17.52, to add 829 points to his tally. Eaton is married to the Canadian heptathlete Brianne Thiesen-Eaton, who won the world silver medal this week. Usain Bolt capped a memorable world championships by winning a third gold medal as anchor of the Jamaican 4x100m relay team, while fierce rival the United States was disqualified. Bolt ran the final leg of the relay at a packed Bird's Nest stadium, hurtling through the line in 37.36 seconds after teammates Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell and Nickel Ashmeade had successfully got the baton around. The victory gave Bolt his 11th world gold medal — the only one missing from his collection being the 100m in the 2011 Daegu worlds when he was disqualified after a false start. The US quartet of 100m bronze and silver medalists Trayvon Bromell and Justin Gatlin, and fellow finalists Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers were initially awarded silver but later disqualified. China, headed by individual 100m finalist Bingtian Su, delighted the home crowd when was upgraded to a shock silver in 38.01sec while Canada was awarded bronze (38.13). Earlier, Mo Farah joined Usain Bolt with a third straight double in individual events at global competitions since winning the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the London Olympics. After defending the 10,000 title on the opening day last weekend, he had a relatively easy race in the 5,000 Saturday. Hanging back in last place for the first two kilometers, Farah then quickly moved up. When Caleb Ndiku sought to sprint away over the last lap, Farah kept the Kenyan in check and beat him in the finishing straight. “It is amazing,” Farah said. “I worked so hard for it.” Ever since the 2012 Olympics, Farah has been unbeatable over the long distance races and has six major gold medals to show for it. Only Bolt has done similar, and the Jamaican will stand out again in the evening session. For the Jamaicans, the women's 4x100 relay team made Saturday's sprint party complete. They brought a smile to Bolt's face ahead of his race when they won gold, beating the US team with a championship record and the second fastest time in history at 41.07. It also was the second gold for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, whose performances were again as flashy as her green hairdo. The Jamaican win denied Allyson Felix a 10th world title, but the American veteran will get another chance in Sunday's 4x400 relay. On a road just outside the Bird's Nest, Matej Toth of Slovakia won the longest event at the championships, taking gold in the 50-kilometer walk in 3:40:32. More than a minute later, Jared Tallent of Australia continued to specialize in silver, adding another to his two Olympic runner-up places. Takayuki Tanii took bronze for Japan's first medal at the championships. Adding to Russia's walking woes, Alexander Yargunkin did not start the 50K race amid reports that he didn't travel to China because of the recent doping scandal in his country. But Russian high jumper Maria Kuchina later took gold ahead of Blanka Vlasic of Croatia. Anna Chicherova, another Russian, ended up with bronze. All three cleared 2.01 meters, but Kuchina won on a countback. Marina Arzamasova of Belarus won the 800 in 1:58.03 and Piotr Malachowski won the discus, giving Poland a third gold in the throwing events. — Agencies
