Monday, September 11 2006 13:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Stuttgart: American Tyson Gay makes the most of the fast conditions to put up the third best performance of all time in the men's 200m at the world athletics final here Sunday (10 Sep, 2006).

The 24-year-old clocked 19.68sec to place him behind world record holder Michael Johnson's 19.32 benchmark set at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and the 19.63 run by Xavier Carter in Lausanne in July.

"This was my last 200m of the season, what a superb way to finish," says the Kentucky-born Gay.

Namibian Frankie Fredericks, who takes the title here in 1993 in the same time as Gay, is at the Gottlieb-Daimler stadium to witness the American match his time.

"To run that time in front of Frankie is a privilege," says Gay.

"He's someone I admire a great deal both as an athlete and as a man."

Gay's compatriot, Michelle Parry, takes the women's 100m hurdles in 12.52 ahead of another American, Damu Cherry.

Sanya Richards, second in the 400m on Saturday (9 Sep, 2006) goes one better to lift the 400m title in 49.25, more than a second clear of runner-up Novlene Williams of Jamaica. "I'm really happy with my season in terms of the consistent results," she says.

Jamaican Sherone Simpson dominates the 100m in 10.89 and Russian Tatyana Lebedeva adds the triple jump to the long jump title captured on Saturday (9 Sep, 2006).

Her fellow Russian Yelena Isinbayeva justifies her favourite's tag in the pole vault but her winning effort of 4.75m was a long way short of her world record jump of 5.01m.

Revenge is in the air in the 3000m with Ethiopia's Meseret Defar edging out compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba the day after Dibaba has prevailed in the 1500m.

Back among the men, Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele matches his younger brother Tariku's success in the 3000m 24 hours earlier with victory in the 5000m in which Tariku takes fourth.

Sweden's Linus Thornblad upstages Russia's European high jump champion Andrey Silnov this time around.