By From David Martin, PA International, Edmonton

Dominican Republic's Felix Sanchez ran the fastest 400metres hurdles time of his life to win his nation's first-ever major track medal at the Commonwealth stadium.

The 23-year-old's time of 47.49seconds was a new national record and the world's fastest time this year.

Sanchez denied defending champion Fabrizio Mori of the gold medal by only 0.05seconds, while third-place went to Japan's Dai Tamescue in 47.89.

Sanchez seized the initiative just before the last of the 10 hurdles and landed before Mori after the decisive final barrier.

The Los Angeles-based student was a semi-finalist at last year's Olympic Games - while two years ago he failed to progress past his World Championship heat.

But he arrived here in tremendous shape after four victories on the tough European Golden League and Grand Prix circuit.

In his final outing he defeated Olympic champion Angelo Taylor at the last of these meetings in London, three weeks ago.

Tonight he did not face Taylor, who crashed out in his heat after hitting a hurdle.

But there was still plenty of quality in a field which produced three personal-best times.

Fourth placed Hadi Al-Somaily of Saudi Arabia, last year's Olympic silver medallist also produced his fastest time of the year.

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Delighted to be his country's first-ever world champion, Sanchez enthused: "It means a lot to me to be able to win the first medal for my country. It's very special.

"Our first medal was gold - now they'll expect the same all the time.

"I pulled it off. It was a very hard race but I knew I had to run it that way. I also had to run my own race and I think I handled the pressure well.

"I just want to thank God for the desire and the strength He gave me to win this race."

Mori mourned the loss of his title, stating: "The race started very fast.

"I knew that Sanchez is very quick so I wanted to stay with him from the beginning. I knew I had a strong kick at the end so I told myself if I could stay with him, I could win.

"I am not disappointed at all. I ran a national record and won a silver medal. Before the race I guessed the time I needed for a medal would be around 47.70, which turned out to be just about right."

Bronze medallist Tamesue said: "Coming here, I really believed I could run the race in 47 something seconds. And I did it!

"This medal is such a reward after all the bad luck in Sydney. Now my thoughts will be focused on Athens 2004. The Olympics are the next thing in my mind."