Hurdler Pearson hands Oz first gold

Sally Pearson stormed to Australia's first, and likely only, gold medal of the world championships on Saturday when she won the 100m hurdles in a new championship record of 12.28 seconds.

Gold Coast resident Pearson had shown how determined she was by firing out to a world lead of 12.36sec in the semi-final. She went one better in the final, running the fourth fastest time ever run in the event.

Only world record holder Yordanka Donkova (12.21sec in 1988) of Bulgaria, her compatriot Ginka Zagorcheva (12.25 in 1987) and Sweden's Ludmila Engquist (12.26 in 1992) have gone faster.