Croatia's Blanka Vlasic, surprisingly beaten in Beijing by now-retired Tia Hellebaut of Belgium, retained the women's high jump champion by clearing 2.04 meters.

Local favorite Ariane Friedrich did not quite live up to the expectations. She narrowly missed her only attempt over 2.06m after two fouls over 2.04m.

Friedrich had to settle for third in the end with 2.02m, losing on countback against Russian Anna Chicherova, bronze medalist at last year's Olympics.

The German beat Vlasic with a German record 2.06m in the same stadium in June but could not repeat the performance on Thursday.

The men's decathlon was won by American Trey Hardee with a total of 8,790 points, Cuba's Leonel Suarez finished second with 8,640 points and Russia's Aleksandr Pogorelov took the bronze with8,528.

Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele launched his bid for a second gold as he eased into the men's 5,000m final.

The Ethiopian, who holds the world record of 12 minutes 37.35 seconds, won the semifinal in 13 minutes 19.77 second.

Bekele, who became the first man to claim the titles of both 5,000 and 10,000, won his fourth successive 10,000m title at the world championships on Monday.

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