Athletics: Front-running tactic works at last

MANCHESTER - Paula Radcliffe's brave front-running finally earned her gold rather than grief when the Englishwoman won her first track title in the 5000m on a buzzing night of athletics.

Radcliffe, whose failure to get on the podium at last year's world championships ended in tears and a trackside tiff with her coach and husband, set a fierce pace to threaten the world record as she clocked 14m 31.42s to take the title.

After the host country failed to win the high-profile men's 100m, Radcliffe's run sparked wild celebrations in the capacity crowd of 38,000, who have created the best atmosphere at a Games outside the Olympics for nearly a decade.

Radcliffe, a London marathon winner who has so often been photographed looking disappointed - notably at the 2000 Sydney Olympics when she lost out on a medal after an astonishing front run - beamed on the podium as the crowd sang Land of Hope and Glory.

At one point she looked capable of recording the most spectacular run of her life as she threatened the world record of 14m 28.09s set by Jiang Bo, of China, in Shanghai in 1997.

"Maybe if I had run a more even pace I might have got closer to the record," she said.

"But the time is irrelevant. I had to win this race. It was amazing just to run in this stadium."

Australia captured a fourth track and field gold medal when Jana Pittman won a drama-charged 400m hurdles final in 54.40s.

The teenager, who many have dubbed the next Cathy Freeman, lived up to that description with a comfortable win after Atlanta Olympic champion Deon Hemmings cut her foot in the warm-up and had to pull out.

England's Natasha Danvers then missed out on a certain bronze medal when she tripped up at the last hurdle.

Jamaica's Michael Blackwood won the men's 400m in 45.07s and countryman Claston Bernard earned the title of the Commonwealth's best all-round athlete with victory in the decathlon with a total of 7830 points.

Australian Matt McEwen was second with 7685 points and Scot Jamie Quarry took bronze with 7630.

Australian favourite Scott Ferrier, silver medallist at the 1998 Games, pulled out on Sunday after the high jump discipline with an Achilles tendon injury.

Nigeria picked up their first gold of the Games when Vivian Chukwuemeka won the women's shot put with a throw of 17.53m.

Aliann Pompey gave Guyana their first athletics gold in 68 years when she capitalised on Freeman's absence to win the women's 400m in 51.63s.

The 24-year-old held on to beat Scotland's Lee McConnell in a thrilling finish to claim her country's first Commonwealth title in track and field since Phil Edwards won the 880-yard event for British Guyana in London in 1934.

England's world recordholder Jonathan Edwards won the triple jump after a battle with compatriot Phillips Idowu to complete a quintet of major titles, adding to the two world championship golds and Olympic and European titles already in his possession.

Edwards' distance was 17.86m, 18cm ahead of Idowu.

Mick Jones completed a golden night for the hosts when he won the hammer with a throw of 72.55m.

The consequences of Sunday's dramatic 100m final, which ended with British favourites Dwain Chambers and Mark Lewis-Francis in agony, dominated the talk off the track.

Both sprinters face a race against time to be fit for the start of the European championships in eight days after pulling up with leg injuries in the second half of the final won by Kim Collins, of the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis.

Chambers, who has beaten Olympic champion Maurice Greene twice this year, returned to London for treatment on a calf.

But teenager Lewis-Francis, who collapsed on the track after the race, had a more serious hamstring injury and is doubtful for the Munich event starting on August 6.

In the men's marathon, Tanzania's Francis Naali ran for 2h 11m 58s to win gold and then completed an extra lap of the track because he was not sure he had finished.

James Donaldson made a grand, late entrance into the stadium for tiny Norfolk Island despite finishing last in the race, more than an hour and a quarter behind Naali.

One of the men's 200m heats was held up to allow Donaldson to finish his race an hour after the penultimate finisher.

Kerryn McCann led an Australian sweep of the medals in the women's marathon before Jane Saville and Nathan Deakes completed an Australian double in the walks.

On the cycling track, Scotland's Chris Hoy upset the form book when he beat Olympic champion Jason Queally in the 1000m time trial.

Australia's Kerrie Meares also caused a surprise when she defeated Canada's world championship silver medallist Lori-Ann Muenzer to win the inaugural women's 500m time trial. Muenzer was third behind England's Jules Paulding.

- AGENCIES