Final day success for Britain

Athletics story by sport.co.uk, Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:06:15 GMT

Britain enjoyed further success on the final day of the World Championships in Berlin as Lisa Dobriskey and the men's 4x400m relay team claimed silver medals.A controversial women's 1500m final saw Dobriskey promoted from third to second place, while a young relay team matched that performance to take Britain's final medal haul to two gold, two silver and two bronze.

Dobrisky originally missed out on a silver medal by just 0.01secs but that was only half the story.
As the race reached its climax on the final bend, Natalia Rodriguez attempted to overtake leader Gelete Burka but the pair collided and the Ethiopian crashed to the track.

Rodriguez stumbled but was able to continue and crossed the line first but was duly disqualified, meaning that Maryam Yusuf Jamal was promoted to gold, with Dobriskey taking silver.

"I'm chuffed to bits," she told the BBC. "The race was so surreal, it went by me. Last year I was so disappointed and I didn't want to finish in that position (fourth) again.

"It was so close to the finish I just thought 'Don't screw it up, don't come fourth or fifth,' and the opposite happened to Beijing, I was just running out of petrol in the last few metres.

"It's quite a satisfying feeling because I couldn't have done any more.

"It was a true championship race with lots of pushing and shoving and, having come through the rounds it really made me believe I'm a true championship performer now.

In the final event of the championships Conrad Williams, Michael Bingham, Rob Tobin and Martyn Rooney claimed silver in a time of 3:00.53 in the men's 4x400m, three seconds behind the dominant American quartet and ahead of the Australians in third.