BERLIN:Usain Bolt bagged his third gold medal of the World Athletics Championships on Saturday when Jamaica stormed to the men’s 4x100m relay title.

Bolt, who has this week shattered his own world records in winning the 100m (9.58sec) and 200m (19.19sec), ran the third leg of the Jamaican effort. Steve Mullings was the anchor man, handing on to Michael Frater, with former world record holder and current 100m bronze medallist Asafa Powell the sprinter entrusted with the final leg.

Bolt, however, failed to completely demonstrate his explosive power around the bend, and his handover to Powell almost went awry when he just avoided running into him. The Jamaican foursome set a championship record time of 37.31sec ahead of Trinidad (37.62) with Britain claiming bronze (38.02).

Away from the world of sprinting, Kenya enjoyed an excellent day’s work with long distance arch-rivals Ethiopia emerging as the main losers. In the morning, Kenyan Abel Kirui won the men’s marathon with compatriot Emmanuel Mutai claiming silver ahead of Ethiopia’s Olympic bronze medallist Tsegay Kebede.

Back on the track, Vivian Cheruiyot trumped defending champion Meseret Defar of Ethiopia in a sprint to the line in the women’s 5000m. As Defar eased off in the knowledge that she had been defeated, Cheruiyot’s compatriot Sylvia Kibet stole in for silver.

American Dwight Phillips, who was the 2004 Olympic champion and world champion in both 2003 and 2005, regained his long jump title with a best of 8.54m. Phillips’s path to gold had been eased considerably when defending champion and Olympic titleholder Irving Saladino failed to make it through to the final three jumps. South African Godfrey Mokoena (8.47m) replicated his Beijing Games form with a silver with Australia’s Mitchell Watt taking bronze (8.37m).