A.N.Famiglietti of the United States beat Poland's Jakub Czaja on the home straight in a dramastic victory to win the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase final here this afternoon at the current Universiade.
Famiglietti,the fastest entrants with a season best time of 8: 21.00, clocked 8:21.97, nearly beating the meet record of 8:21.26.
Czaja cruised home in 8:23.00 for the silver and Christian Belz of Switzerland finished third in 8:24.46.
Czaja, 20, changed to a higher gear at the bell and opened a five-meter gap on the home straight. With Famiglietti showing no signs of threat, the Polish runner looked set to win the gold with ease.
But Czaja almost fell when he jumped over the final water hurdle. The accident didn't affect his speed much, but scared him a lot. He slowed down obviously when he jumped over the final hurdle while Famiglietti took the chance and beat him relentlessly in the run-in.
(Xinhua News Agency 08/29/2001)
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