Tom PAPPAS (USA) made sure of his gold medal by running a personal best in the last event of decathlon, the 1500 metres. The American, number two in the world list this season, performed very close to his best throughout the competition and completed his day with a personal best in the 1500m, 4:44.31.
Pappas scored a total of 8750 points, only 34 less than his career best decathlon at the US national championships earlier this season.
In the end the 1500m race was very clear. World record holder Roman SEBRLE (CZE) needed a 28 second win over Pappas, but was never going to get one with the American shadowing him throughout.
Sebrle ran 4:34.45, easily enough to keep him in the silver medal position. Sebrle's final points, 8634, were almost 300 points more than he needed to keep his position.
The biggest surprise of the competition was Dmitriy KARPOV's (KAZ) bronze medal. Karpov led the competition until the discus throw. He had some fine performances, including a very big personal best of 47.33s in the 400m yesterday.
Karpov's final score of 8374 broke his own national record of 8253, set earlier this season, with a big margin of 121 points.
Tomas DVORAK (CZE), with three successive wins from the World Championships, was still able to raise himself to fourth place despite bad form in some events. Dvorak recorded a personal best in the 1500m with 4:27.63 to total 8242 points.
Laurent HERNU (FRA) fought hard in the final sprint of the last event and was able to overtake Lev LOBODIN (RUS) in the rankings. Hernu was fifth with 8218, and Lobodin, fifth in 1999 and 2001, dropped down to sixth this time, scoring 8198 points.
The youngest competitor in the event, 20-year-old Qi Haifeng (CHN), set a national record of 8126 points for seventh place, beating his own previous NR from last year's Asian Games by 85 points.
