Ana GUEVARA fulfilled all the predictions tonight by winning the women's 400m final, and she did so in the kind of time not run by a woman for seven years.
The Mexican, who is the first woman from her country ever to win a World Championship title, clocked 48.89, the first sub-49 seconds 400m since France's Marie Jose Perec and Australia's Cathy Freeman finished first and second at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, running 48.25 and 48.63 respectively.
The perennial silver medallist Lorraine FENTON (JAM) finished second again, as she did at the 2000 Olympic Games and the 2001 World Championships, running her fastest race of the year. She recorded 49.43, while the defending champion Amy Mbacke THIAM of Senegal had to be satisfied with the bronze this time, also in a season's best, 49.95.
Unlike in previous rounds, and recent races, Thiam, in lane six, went out hard from the start. Guevara, in two, was also away well and had made up the stagger on lanes four (Tonique WILLIAMS of the Bahamas) and lane five (Fenton) by half way. She and Thiam ran the bend hard, as did Russia's World Indoor champion Natalya NAZAROVA, while Fenton was also fighting back.
But the Mexican's strength has carried through an unbeaten run stretching back 21 finals before this one, and it wasn't about to desert her now. She came home some five metres clear, with Fenton finishing strongly for second. Thiam tried to kick but her early work had sapped her usual finishing energy. She began to fade,lost touch with Fenton, but hung on to beat Nazarova on the line by three hundredths.
