Jenny Meadows claimed a bronze medal for Great Britain as Caster Semenya put controversy to one side to win the 800 metres at the World Championships in Berlin on Wednesday night.

Meadows looked out of contention for most of the race but produced a storming finish to snatch third on the line in a new personal best of one minute 57.93 seconds.

South Africa's Semenya, the subject of an official investigation into her gender, powered to victory in 1min 55.45secs, more than a second quicker than her previous best and the fastest time in the world this year.

Kenya's Janeth Jepkosgei took silver, more than two seconds behind Semenya but just 0.03s ahead of Meadows, with Britain's Marilyn Okoro back in eighth place.

Meadows' time makes her the third fastest British athlete of all time behind double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes and Kirsty Wade.

Yusuf Saad Kamel was a surprise winner of the 1500 metres after his explosive sprint finish saw him clinch gold - but there was no medal for favourite Asbel Kiprop.

In a slow, cagey race, the Kenyan-born athlete, now representing Bahrain, positioned himself well heading into the home straight and kicked hard to overtake Ethiopia' Deresse Mekonnen, who had attempted to seize the initiative at the bell, and crossed the line in 3 minutes 35.93 seconds.

Olympic silver medallist Kiprop got his tactics all wrong, leaving himself with far too much to do having opted to sit back behind the pack for much of the race and ended up finishing fourth despite being heavily tipped for gold.

The champion of two years ago, Bernard Lagat of America, looked as though he was slipping well down the field around the final bend but found extra reserves in the last 50m to snatch the bronze.

Kenya's other medal hope Augustine Choge - the world leader this year - faded into fifth place.

Jamaican veteran Brigitte Foster-Hylton won her first world title when storming to victory in the 100m hurdles.

The 34-year-old, who had previously picked up bronze in Helsinki back in 2005 and silver two years before that, finally clinched the top prize when edging out Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Canada and fellow Jamaican Delloreen Ennis-London.

Foster-Hylton burst out of the blocks and ran a clean race over the hurdles to cross the line in a season's best time of 12.51 seconds and couldn't hide her delight when victory was confirmed.

Lopes-Schliep, the Olympic bronze medallist, was just behind in 12.54 with Ennis-London just a further 0.01 further back as Jamaica could celebrate two more medals sprint medals in Berlin.

Olympic champion Dawn Harper of the USA had a slow start and finished seventh while the silver-medallist in Beijing, Sally McLellan from Australia, finished fifth.

Ireland's Derval O'Rourke ran a new national record of 12.67sec to finish fourth, and can be proud of her efforts having only qualified for the final as a fastest loser.

Germany's Robert Harting produced a final throw of 69.43 metres to win a thrilling discus competition and send the home crowd in Berlin into ecstasy.

The 24-year-old - a silver medallist in 2007 - looked as though he'd have to settle for second place again when Poland's Piotr Malachowski, who had been leading from the first round, produced a national record of 69.15 in the fifth round to extend his advantage over the field.

But Harting sparked wild scenes at the Olympic Stadium when unleashing a stunning personal best at the death and when Malachowski could only send his sixth throw out to 67.33, the celebrations could begin.

Defending champion Gerd Kanter of Estonia - also the Olympic gold medallist - had to settle for bronze with 66.88m.

Usain Bolt moved a step closer to achieving the sprint double after cruising into the 200m final.

The Jamaican sensation, who broke his own 100m world record at the weekend to win gold with a stunning run of 9.58 seconds, hardly broke sweat against the lack of realistic challenge and claimed an easy win ahead of Panama's Alonso Edward in the first of two semi-finals.

Bolt's time of 20.08 was comfortably the fastest of the eight qualifiers, which also include American duo Wallace Spearmon - who won bronze in Osaka two years ago - and the Olympic silver medallist Shawn Crawford.

Marlon Devonish, Britain's only representative after the withdrawals of Dwain Chambers and trials winner Toby Sandeman, ran a time of 20.62 as he finished a disappointing seventh in the second semi-final behind Ireland's Paul Hession, who also missed out.

Devonish, a member of Britain's Olympic gold medal winning relay team in Athens, said: "The plan was to run away from Wallace Spearmon on the bend because I knew he would come back at me.

"But I ran the first 100m too relaxed and couldn't maintain it down the home straight."

Great Britain's Michael Bingham qualified for the final of the 400m after a posting a personal best to finish just behind defending champion Jeremy Wariner in the first of three heats.

The 23-year-old kept his composure despite being drawn in lane eight and having put himself in contention with a strong first 300m, he managed to hold off the challenge of France's Leslie Djhone and David Gillick of Ireland down the home straight to clock a time of 44.74 seconds and earn one of two automatic spots.

American Wariner looked well at ease as he won in 44.69 while Djhone and Gillick also progressed as fastest losers following the other two heats.

Bingham, who was born in North Carolina but qualified for Britain in 2008 through his British father, said: "I'm not finished yet.

"I'm not winning so it (the time) doesn't matter. It builds confidence, I have a lot left."

Team-mates Martyn Rooney and Robert Tobin missed out after both finishing seventh in their respective semi-finals.

Olympic finalist Rooney, who saw his preparations ruined by a hamstring injury, faded badly and crossed the line well behind gold medal favourite LaShawn Merritt and Renny Quow of Trinidad.

He said: "It was a poor run but I have missed too much time training, a good eight weeks where I was just on a bike and not allowed to run. I couldn't expect too much."

Chris Brown and Tabarie Henry - first and second in heat three - will complete the final line-up.

Emily Freeman easily advanced to the semi-finals of the women's 200m after finishing second in her quarter-final behind Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown.

Defending champion Allyson Felix also coasted into the semis as she casually went through the motions to take first place in her heat.

Another Beijing finalist, Sarah Claxton, also failed to reach the final of the 100m hurdles after finishing eighth in the semi-final in 13.21s.

The three fastest qualifiers for the final later tonight were America's Dawn Harper, Brigitte Foster Hylton of Jamaica and Canada's Perdita Felicien.

After day one of the decathlon, Ukraine's Oleksiy Kasyanov was in first place with 4,555, 43 points ahead of Cuba's Yunior Diaz with American Trey Hardee in third just one point further back.

In the morning session injured Andy Turner bravely battled to the finish line in his 110m hurdles heat but could not progress further.

The British star cruelly suffered a hamstring injury during training in Portugal last week but still decided to compete in Berlin.

With his left thigh heavily strapped, Turner started his first-round heat well enough but faded to finish only fifth in 13.73secs.

World-record holder and Olympic champion Dayron Robles also appeared to be struggling as he scraped through in third place in his heat in 13.67.

Like Turner, the Cuban had his left leg strapped but he overcame a sluggish start to hit back and gain a top-three spot with a strong finish.

There was better news for another Briton, Will Sharman, who was third in his heat in 13.52 to move into the semi-finals.

But the third Brit, Gianni Frankis, paid for hitting a hurdle heavily.

He had led out of the blocks but after clattering the third-from-last barrier he could finish only seventh in his heat in 13.83.

Americans Terrence Trammell and David Payne were among the other qualifiers, as Hungary's Daniel Kiss led the way with a fastest time of 13.34.

Defending champion Meseret Defar was the fastest qualifier for the women's 5,000m final.

The Ethiopian, who ran 15mins 16.46secs, and her fellow big guns progressed as expected.

Meselech Melkamu, Vivian Cheruiyot and Genzebe Dibaba - younger sister of the injured world-record holder Tirunesh - all went through to Saturday's medal race.

However, Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse did not start.

In the field, Xuejun Ma (63.38m) was the leading qualifier in the women's discus.

Olympic champion Stephanie Brown Trafton failed to throw the automatic qualifying distance but scraped through as only 10 athletes managed 61.50 or better.

And in men's high jump qualifying, Andra Manson was safely among those to clear the qualifying height of 2.30m.

The American, who has cleared a world-leading 2.35 this season, was joined in Friday's final by Russian stars Yaroslav Rybakov and Ivan Ukhov.