HELSINKI, Finland, 14 August 2005 — On a day made for doubles, Tirunesh Dibaba clinched an unprecedented long-distance sweep and sprinter Lauryn Williams added a second gold by helping the United States win the 400 relay yesterday at the world athletics championships.

The 19-year-old Dibaba successfully defended her title in the 5,000 meter race, beating three compatriots in a championship-record time of 14 minutes, 38.59 seconds — the second Ethiopian rout in a week. On the competition’s opening day, Dibaba led a sweep in the 10,000.

Defying stomach pains, Morocco’s Jaouad Gharib defended his marathon title with a burst of speed to leave the opposition trailing with about 12 kilometers to go.

After winning the 100 on Monday, Williams ran a blazing anchor leg to win her second gold medal of this year’s competition.

With her hair tied up in Mickey Mouse ears, Williams got the baton first and never let Olympic champion Jamaica get close over the final stretch, finishing in a season’s leading 41.78 seconds. Belarus took bronze.

Allyson Felix, the 200 champion, also could have won her second gold, but the coaches decided to stay with the team that ran Friday’s heats.

Victory pushed the United States to 12 golds, just one shy of its world championship record. It has 23 overall.

Russia was second with five golds and 15 overall, and the Ethiopian sweep pushed the African nation into third with three golds and eight overall.

With 300 meters to go, Dibaba and her teammates burst away from the pack. Meseret Defar kept up with Dibaba until the final 50 meters, but could not withstand Dibaba’s final acceleration.

Dibaba’s older sister, Ejegayehu Dibaba, took bronze. The Ethiopians also swept the 10,000.

In the 400 hurdles, Yulia Pechonkina kept her unbeaten outdoor record this year going, dipping under 53 seconds with a season-leading 52.90 to hold off Americans Lashinda Demus and Sandra Glover.

Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus won the shot put with a throw of 20.51 meters, beating Olga Ryabinkina of Russia and Valerie Vili of New Zealand.

Two years after winning with a final burst of speed entering the stadium in Paris, Gharib didn’t wait this long yesterday.

“With some 10 kilometers to go, I felt good and said, ‘Here I go,”’ Gharib said.

Gharib joined Abel Anton of Spain as the only men to win back-to-back world marathon titles. Anton accomplished the feat in Athens in 1997 and Seville in 1999.

In the absence of middle-distance great Hicham El Guerrouj, it was Morocco’s first gold at the championships. Christopher Isegwe of Tanzania took silver and Tsuyoshi Ogata of Japan was third.

In the 400 hurdles, Demus went out too fast in the outside lane and offered a perfect target for Pechonkina. The Russian caught her in the final bend and her kick for home was unstoppable. The world record holder clocked the second fastest time of her career.

“I managed to figure out the peak of my form at the right time,” said Pechonkina, who has won silver and bronze at previous worlds.

Against Pechonkina, Demus tried a risky tactic but still got home with silver.

“Obviously she was going to get it. It was written before we even knew it,” she said.

Dibaba didn’t even need to win the 5,000 to have a superlative season, which started with an indoor world record over the distance in Boston in February. She then added the cross-country long and short distance world titles before winning the 10,000 world title last weekend.

Sebrle Cleared for Receiving Infusion, Doping Results Negative So Far

Meantime, Olympic decathlon champion Roman Sebrle will not be punished for receiving a glucose infusion during the 10-event competition and will be able to hold on to his world championship silver medal if his blood sample confirms a negative urine doping test, the IAAF said yesterday.

“There was no rule-breaking,” IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said of the infusion of glucose both Sebrle and former three-time world champion Tomas Dvorak received before the final event _ the 1,500 meter race. Glucose is not an illegal substance.

The Czech federation said it administered the infusion because both athletes had dangerously low sugar levels near the end of the grueling two-day competition, which ended Wednesday.

The World Anti-Doping Agency says infusions are illegal unless they are used “as a legitimate acute medical treatment.”

The medical commission of the IAAF will meet in 10 days to assess how the procedure for such infusions can be tightened to prevent frequent use during competitions.

The IAAF said the infusions did not affect the validity of the samples from the two athletes.

“A full investigation into alleged intravenous infusions by the athletes prior to the 1,500 meters has been completed and it has been agreed that no further action will be taken,” an IAAF statement said.

Dvorak has already fully cleared the doping test, while Sebrle’s blood sample is still being investigated, although there was no reason to be suspicious of an infraction.

Bryan Clay of the United States won the gold medal, followed by Sebrle and Hungary’s Attila Zsivoczky. Andre Niklaus of Germany was fourth.