Bit of a mixed day yesterday at the IAAF World Championships. The event that caught me was the high jump again, the men's this time. It didn't start off all that well and was quite uneventful in the early stages but it did hot up eventually, much due to the fact that the home crowd had a favourite in the mix. In the end, four jumpers cleared 2.32 and with world leader Ukhov already out of it and title holder Donald Thomas not there to defend the title, the medallists were made up of Spank, the German crowd's favourite, and Sylwester Bednarek of Poland sharing bronze, Cyprus's Kyriakos Ioannou winning silver and the gold medal going to Yaroslav Rybakov, the owner of three silver medals already.

The biggest shock of the night must be Australia's Dani Samuels in the women's discus when she came from early anonymity to suddenly add two and a half metres in two throws to take the lead on 65.44, which proved to be the winning throw.

Drama in the men's 800 semi when the favourite, Abubaker  Kaki of Sudan, tripped while in the lead taking two other runners down with him. A jury decision later determined Kaki had tripped himself up but that the two others, Som and Lewandowski would be allowed in the final. The second semi could easily have been the final with the 1500-metres winner, the 2004 Olympic champion, the defending champion and the 2004 Olympic silver medallist all qualifying for the final!

Drama also in the men's 4 x 100 heats as it first looked like the USA came home first in their heat ahead of Great Britain but was disqualified by the Referee for overrunning the zone allowed for handing over the baton. So the question I asked earlier this week whether Jamaica could find four sprinters of the USA's calibre has become null and void. They must be favourites now. Let's face it, Usain could probably run all of it himself!

All the best.