体坛英语新闻：Qatar wins first gold, American Muhammad sets 400m hurdles WR in Doha

DOHA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Home fans were in ecstacy when Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim defended his title in a world leading height of 2.37 meters at the athletics world championships here on Friday.

Barshim took the host's first gold medal here after he edged two authorized neutral athletes Mikhail Akimenko (2.35) and Ilya Ivanyuk (2.35), who took silver and bronze respectively.

Steven Gardiner of Bahrain grabbed the men's 400m victory in 43.48 seconds as Colombian Anthony Jose Zambrano took his country's first medal, a silver, in Doha in 44.15. Fred Kerley of the United States finished third in 44.17.

Kenya's Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto demonstrated his dominating power in the men's 3,000m steeplechase when he defended his title in 8:01.35.

Ethiopian teenager Lamecha Girma narrowly missed the victory, one hundredth of a second off the pace and Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco was third in 8:03.76.

Olympic champion and world top ranked Dalilah Muhammad of the United States renewed her own world record as she stormed to win the women's 400m hurdles gold medal.

The 29-year-old, who collected two silver medals in the previous two editions of the competition, clocked 52.16 seconds to win, trimming 0.04s off the world record she set in July in her country.

Her compatriot Sydney McLaughlin finished second with a personal best of 52.23. Jamaica's Rushell Clayton took the bronze medal in 53.74.

The women's discus throw title went to Cuban Yaime Perez at 69.17m while her compatriot and 2015 Beijing worlds champion Denia Caballero took silver in 68.44 and Croatia's Sandra Perkovic came third in 66.72. China's Chen Yang and Feng Bin finished fourth and fifth respectively.