Gay makes amends for Brussels defeat with victory in Greece

IT was all smiles for Tyson Gay at the World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki, Greece after the American reeled in Asafa Powell to take 100m gold.

BACK ON TOP: Tyson Gay wins 100m title at World Athletics Final and admits groin surgery is round the corner (Getty Images)

Jamaican Powell burst out of the blocks and looked as though he had the title in the bag but Gay stormed back in the last 20m to win in 9.88 seconds.

Powell was 0.02 secs behind in second with American Darvis Patton in third but it was Gay who hogged the headlines in Greece and the American admitted he was winding down his season before groin surgery over the winter.

But after losing to Powell at the Golden League meet in Brussels last week, Gay was adamant he wanted to make amends with a win in Greece.

"Asafa got a good start on me and this time I wanted to make sure I ran through the line," said Gay, who set an American national record of 9.71 secs to claim 100m silver at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin last month.

"He's a great competitor and I love racing against him. He always brings his best to the track.

"I've got one or two races left this season and after that I'm looking forward to the surgery."

American LaShawn Merritt looked a class above the rest of the field as he strolled to victory in the 400m.

The 23-year old added to his Olympic title from Beijing with World gold in Berlin and seemed to jog round to take the honours in 44.94 secs in Greece.

And the American had athletics fans drooling over a potential rivalry with Usain Bolt after admitting he wanted to concentrate on 200m next season.

"I'm very confident about my running," said Merritt. "I know I've just got to stick to my strategy and everything will be alright.

"Next year I'm going to run a couple of 200m and try and drop my time down in that."

Bahamas' Chris Brown was more than half a second back in second with American David Neville in third and Britain's Michael Bingham fourth.

Meanwhile Russia's Elena Isinbaeva was back to her best as she stormed through the women's pole vault competition.

The Olympic champion and world record holder failed to record a jump at the World Championships and was reduced to tears as Poland's Anna Rogowska stole in for surprise gold.

But there were no such errors in Greece as the Russian entered the competition with a comfortable 4.70 jump - enough for gold ahead of Brazil's Fabiana Murer and Poland's Monika Pyrek.

The 27-year old notched a height of 4.80m before three failed attempts at topping her on her own world record - reset at 5.06m at the Zurich Golden League meet in late August.

American world champion Kerron Clement took a comfortable gold in the men's 400m hurdles, finishing in 48.11 secs.

Jamaica's Isa Phillips was hot on Clement's tail for most of the race but bashed a hurdle coming into the home straight and was disqualified with South African L.J. van Zyl taking silver and home favourite Periklis Iakovakis bronze.

Elsewhere there were medals for Germany's Betty Heidler in the women's shot and Lithuania's Virgilijus Alekna in the men's discus.

Kenya's Ruth Nyangau took gold in the women's 3000m steeplechase and Ethiopia's Meseret Defar took the women's 5000m title.