Harting wins gold in discus

Harting fought off a back injury for a winning throw of 69.11 meters in his fourth attempt at Moscow's Luzniki Stadium. This was the fourth-longest throw of the athletics season.

Piotr Malachowski of Poland, the only man to have broken the 70-meter mark this season, took the silver, with a throw of 68.36 meters. Estonian Gerd Kanter's 65.19-meter throw was good enough for the bronze.

"It was a really good competition with a good, happy end," Harting's coach, Werner Goldmann, told the German public television station ZDF.

Following the win, the 28-year-old Harting delivered his trademark celebration to a mass of photographers, tearing off his vest before setting out on a lap of honor around the track.

The Berlin-based discus thrower admitted to reporters that he had been in a lot of pain during the competition.

"Sometimes it hurts, there is no denying it. This is high-performance sport," Harting said. "When the adrenaline is flowing, you have to come through. I could have easily finished second, though."

This was Germany's second gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, and it came a day after Raphael Holzdeppe surprised everybody by winning in the men's pole vault. This made Holzdeppe the first-ever German man to win gold in the pole vault.

pfd/mkg (sid, dpa)