ATHENS, Aug 11: Sergei Bubka did it again. The Ukrainian star, bouncing back from injury, won the gold medal in the pole vault to night for his sixth consecutive World Championship title.

In a thrilling duel with Russian rival Maxim Tarasov, Bubka clinched victory with a championship record vault of 6.01 meters.

Bubka raised the bar to 6.15 for a bid to break his own world record of 6.14, but gave up the attempt less than halfway down the runway.

A world record would have been too much to ask for from Bubka, who has now won gold at all six World Championships dating back to 1983. He was already the only athlete to win at the first five.

Bubka has set the pole vault world record a total of 35 times indoors and outdoors. His victory on Sunday was all the more amazing because he underwent career-threatening surgery on his torn right Achilles tendon in December.

Bubka had competed only twice this year, not going beyond 5.70 metres before today.

Tarasov took the silver with a best jump of 5.96 while surprising American Dean Starkey took bronze in 5.91.

In the final event of the ten day championships, the United States beat rival Britain for the gold medal in the men's 1,600-metre relay. It was the Americans' third straight World title in the event.

Tyree Washington, running the anchor leg, held off Mark Richardson to give the Americans victory in a season's best time of 2:56.47. The British finished second in 2:56.65 and Jamaica third in 2:56.75.

Jerome Young, Chris Jones and Andrew Pettigrew were the others on a US team that was missing World and Olympic champion Michael Johnson and world record-holder Butch Reynolds.

The victory helped make up for the American disaster in the 400-metre relay, when the US team was eliminated in the opening round on Saturday after a bungled handoff.

In the 400-metre relay final, Olympic 100-metre champion Donovan Bailey ran a sizzling anchor leg to lead Canada to the gold in 37.86 seconds, with Nigeria second and Britain third.

The Canadians retained the title they won at the 1995 Worlds in Goteborg and the 1996 Olympics.

Bailey said he pulled his left adductor muscle in the warmup but was able to run without much pain. He trailed Nigeria's David Ezinwa after taking the baton but streaked past him quickly.

Bailey said the victory helped make up for losing his World 100-metre title last weekend when he finished second behind Maurice Greene. ``Two golds would have been better, but a gold and a silver's OK,'' Bailey said.

In the women's 1,600-metre relay, the two-time defending champion US team was beaten in the final by Germany. Grit Breuer charged through on the inside lane in the final straight to blow past Jearl Miles-Clark. The Germans clocked 3:20.92, while the Americans clocked 3:21.03 and Jamaica took the bronze in 3:31.30.

In the women's 100-metre hurdles, Olympic champion Ludmila Engquist of Sweden used a late surge to grab victory in 12.50 seconds. Bulgaria's Svetla Dimitrova won the silver in 12.58.

Kenya's Daniel Komen won his first gold medal at a major championship on Sunday, coasting to victory in the 5,000 meters.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.