Dan O'Brien extended his lead in the decathlon today as he closed in on a second consecutive title in the World Championships.
The American world record-holder had a time of 14.08 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and a mark of meters 157 feet, 3 inches in the discus for a seven-event total of 6,389 points in the two-day competition. The event closes with the pole vault, javelin and 1,500.O'Brien, who led by four points after the first day, boosted his lead over Paul Meier of Germany to 118 points. Meier finished the hurdles in 14.63 and threw the discus 150-0.
Eduard Hamalainen of Belarus was third with 6,270. He set a world decathlon record in the hurdles in 13.57 - bettering his own previous mark of 13.65 - and threw the discus 161-7.
O'Brien said he was still bothered by a groin strain.
"I was skeptical whether I could make it through the hurdles," he said. "Halfway through I was hurting. It's much worse than yesterday, but I don't expect to falter. I just want to make it through the pole vault with 5 meters."
Sally Gunnell's world record in the 400 hurdles, Merlene Ottey's first gold medal in a major championship and Sergei Bubka's historic - though angry - triumph in the pole vault highlighted Thursday night's performances.
Gunnell, the Olympic champion from Britain, won the hurdles in 52.74 to set the first world record of the championships - cutting two-tenths of a second off the previous mark set by Russia's Marina Stepanova in 1986.
Gunnell took the lead over the final hurdle and lunged in front of Sandra Farmer-Patrick of the United States at the finish. Farmer-Patrick also beat the previous world record, clocking 52.79.
"I realized it was close and I wasn't going to jump up and down in case someone took the gold medal away from me," Gunnell said. "At first I thought I had equaled the record. Then I realized how much I had knocked off it.
"Winning was the main thing. The record was a bonus. Technically it was the perfect race, but I believe I can go faster - maybe 52.50."
In other events this morning, two-time defending champion Werner Gunthor of Switzerland, Olympic champion Mike Stulce of the United States and American world record-holder Randy Barnes were among the qualfiers in the men's shot put. Gunthor had a mark of 67-51/2, Stulce 67 41/4 and Barnes 66-33/4.
In the women's triple jump, world-record holder Yolanda Chen of Russia qualified after two fouls with a mark of 46-23/4.
The 200 was probably the last chance at a gold medal for Ottey, the 33-year-old Jamaican who felt she was robbed of victory in Monday's 100 final with champion Gail Devers of the United States. She had won eight individual bronze medals and two silvers in Olympic or World Championships competition since 1980.
Ottey took a commanding lead around the curve but tied up badly over the final 10 meters, starting her lean early and just making it to the line before Olympic champion Gwen Torrence of the United States.
Ottey's time was 21.98, with Torrence clocked at 22.00.
"I was still in shock," Ottey said. "Of course, I was worried something would go wrong. This race was very stressful. I was expecting the worst to happen."
But this time, Ottey's name was flashed on the stadium scoreboard as the champion. And minutes later, the gold medal rested around her neck.