A devastated Fionnuala Britton finished 15th in the 10,000m final last night as Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba became the first woman to successfully defend the title.

Double Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele has been suspended indefinitely by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation following a row over training camps.

Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba failed to collect a fourth World Cross Country title today after being run out of the medals in Poland.

JAMAICA obliterated the field in the men’s 4x100 metres relay as Usain Bolt claimed his third gold medal and world record of the Beijing Games.

TWO more Olympic athletes have tested positive for drugs bringing the total number of doping violations in Beijing to three.

TWO more Olympic athletes have tested positive for drugs bringing the total number of doping violations in Beijing to three.

PAUL HESSION singled out Brendan Christian (Antigua & Barbuda) as the favourite to win the race before he went to the line for last evening’s 200m at the Bislett Games Golden League meeting in Oslo and then went on to challenge him for the lead coming off the bend.

THE African dominance of global running was reinforced to stranglehold proportions at the world cross-country championships in Edinburgh yesterday where Ethiopians raced to all four individual gold medals and were deprived of gold in just two of the team races by their Kenyan neighbours who won both the senior and junior men’s contests.

TYSON Gay overcome an uncharacteristic bout of nerves to see off the challenge of Asafa Powell and clinch the 100 metres gold medal last night.

Tirunesh Dibaba battled back from the brink of defeat to retain her World Championships 10,000 metres title in Osaka on Saturday night.

ASAFA POWELL, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards made it six Golden League wins out of six in Berlin yesterday to earn a cash bonus of $250,000 each.

World junior cross-country champion Gelete Burika is a last-minute recruit to challenge pre-race favourite Tirunesh Dibaba for the VisitScotland Great Edinburgh Cross Country title on Saturday.

Tirunesh Dibaba became the first athlete to achieve the 5000 and 10000 metres double when she defended her title over the shorter distance at the World Championship in Helsinki.

IRELAND’S interest in the world championships in Helsinki ended last night with the elimination of Maria McCambridge (5,000m) and Derval O’Rourke (100m hurdles).

Tirunesh Dibaba won in Carlsbad on Sunday and equalled Paula Radcliffe’s 5000m road-race record.

Kenenisa Bekele's record hopes were dashed when he miscounted his laps in the men's 3,000m and staged his sprint finish a lap too soon at the Boston Indoor Games.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will be back in old, familiar surroundings when she lines up for the final of the women’s 5,000m at the Olympic Stadium in Athens tonight.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN arrives here tomorrow full of confidence and ready to produce her best performances of the year, according to partner Nic Bideau yesterday.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN is prepared to run faster than ever in her quest for a medal at the world championships in Paris today.