Felix and Richards-Ross power US women to relay gold

Allyson Felix and sanya Richards-Ross may have failed to win gold in the individual 400 metre race, but they teamed to run two legs in powering the US women's relay team to a 4x400m win.

Other news at the World Championships:

Women's 4x400m relay

Allyson Felix ran the second leg for the United States' winning 4x400m relay team to claim her seventh gold over four world championships. Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross failed to win gold in the individual 400m but running the first two legs of the relay, they built such a lead that the outcome was inevitable. They won in 3:18.09. Behind the Americans, Jamaica took silver in 3:18.71 and Russia earned bronze in 3:19.36. It was the third straight victory in the event for the US, while Jamaica has now taken silver at the last four world championships.

Blood sampling complete

The IAAF says it has completed blood sampling of every athlete participating at the World Championships. The IAAF says 1,848 pre-competition blood samples have been collected. Lamine Diack, the IAAF president, said: "the IAAF is proud of its total commitment to the fight against doping in athletics and this initiative will stand us in very good stead as we re-double our efforts going forward." The blood testing programme is in addition to the usual in-competition testing of more than 500 urine samples, which are being analysed by a WADA-accredited laboratory.

Women's high jump

Russian Anna Chicherova clinched the women's high jump gold medal on a countback from Blanka Vlasic yesterday to end the Croatian's four-year reign as world champion. Both Chicherova, who won silver behind her rival at the last two world championships, and Vlasic jumped 2.03 metres to move clear of the rest of the field but neither could clear 2.05. Vlasic's failed attempts at 2.00 and 2.03 then proved decisive and the 27 year old, who has been struggling with injury and poor form this year, took silver.

Perennial bridesmaid Chicherova finally got the better of Vlasic, taking the title after finishing runner-up to the Croatian in the 2007 and 2009 World Championships. Despite her tears at the finish, Vlasic, who confirmed her attendance very late due to a knee injury, looked for positives. "Twenty days ago I jumped 1.90 metres in training and I was crying like hell. I was, like, I don't want to put myself through this," she said. "But now I'm delighted, it was the 100th time over two metres."

Men's 50km race walk

Sergey Bakulin won the men's 50 kilometre race walk to complete a Russian sweep at the World Championships. Bakulin surged ahead of midway leader Nathan Deakes of Australia at the 32km mark and won in 3 hrs, 41 mins, 24 secs. Olympic champion Valeriy Borchin won the men's 20km walk, and Olga Kaniskina took gold in the women's 20km event. "I'm still not too aware of what is going on around me, I'm just filled with happiness," said the 24-year-old Bakulin, who won his first major title. "This is very special for me because it is the first time in my career to win something as big as this."

Women's 100m hurdles

Britain's Tiffany Porter has vowed to bounce back from the disappointment of narrowly failing to claim a medal in the 100m hurdles in Daegu. Porter, 23, broke her own British record qualifying for the final. But Porter, who was born in Michigan but has held dual citizenship since birth thanks to her London-born mother, could only finish fourth in the final after crucially hitting the penultimate hurdle. She said: "I'm going to watch the race, I will probably watch it a million times, and take the positives away from it and grow into a better athlete. You can't make a mistake against this calibre of athletes and expect to medal."