Kelli White left other sprinters far behind, winning the 200 by a third of a second.
		By Lionel Cironneau, AP

White, who never won a state sprint title in high school or a Southeastern Conference or NCAA title at Tennessee, also won the 100 last weekend.

The 26-year-old has a chance for a third gold medal as part of the U.S. 4x100 relay. The final is Saturday.

"This is where it counts," said White, who lives in Union City, Calif. "I'd rather have it now than when I was 15 or 17."

White was joined on the medal podium by teammate and ex-prep rival Torri Edwards. Edwards earned a bronze to go with her silver in the 100.

As she did in the 100, White ran a personal-best 22.05, also the fastest time in the world this year. Russia's Anastasiya Kapachinskya was second at 22.38, with Edwards 0.09 behind.

White's victory celebration wasn't much. She flashed the V sign (two fingers signaling her 100 and 200 wins) and carried a U.S. flag.

"I had no more energy, not even to celebrate," said White, who has had eight races. "Holding the flag took a lot of energy."

White's coach, Remi Korchemny, said her best ability is "to learn. But she has talent. Not many people can achieve five strides per second or maintain it. It's taken years to develop."

White has come a long way. In the spring she failed to qualify for the World Indoor Championships and aggravated a nagging foot injury. She told Korchemny she didn't think she could finish the outdoor season.

"This is a great accomplishment," White said of the double, "and shows how much courage I had to be able to put everything I had out there."

White has outrun every female sprinter in the world this year. But she can't distance herself from Marion Jones, who took the season off for the birth of her first child on June 28 but has been training.

Not even Jones, the 2000 Olympic 100 and 200 champ, won the sprint double at a world championships.

"I can only be Kelli White," White said when asked if she was the next Marion Jones. "I think I finally made a name for myself. Hopefully, I now will be appreciated by the track and field world."

There's a chance White and Jones could meet before next year's Olympic trials.

The meet director for next month's Moscow Sprint Challenge says there's a 90% chance Jones will compete at the meet, though the Jones camp downplays the probability of competition this season.

The April Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., is talking about a 300 race between White, Jones and 400 champ Ana Guevara of Mexico.

Stretch run: Russia's Yulia Pechonkina set a world record earlier this month, looked invincible during the rounds and held a convincing lead after the eighth of 10 hurdles in the 400 hurdles.

But when she faltered in the stretch, Australia's Jana Pittman and the USA's Sandra Glover surged. Pittman took the gold (53.22), Glover the silver (53.65) and Pechonkina the bronze (53.71).

"If you saw the race, you will understand I'm disappointed," Pechonkina said. "In the end, my legs gave up."

At 35, Glover is the senior citizen of the group — Pittman is 20, Pechonkina is 25 — and earned her first medal at the worlds or Olympics.

"It's my best international result so far, therefore I'm confident for next year," said Glover, coached by her husband, Don.

"My husband warned me they'd probably go out hard. My thing is I try to stay focused, run within myself and finish hard. That's what I did."

Pappas set for '04: Tom Pappas had time for a shower, a leg massage and some worry in the 90 minutes before the concluding 1,500 meters of the decathlon Wednesday at the World Track & Field Championships.

He needed to stay within 25 seconds of world record-holder Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic to win the competition.

Pappas, fifth at the 2000 Olympics, stayed within 10 seconds and won the gold medal (8,750 points) with Sebrle second (8,634).

Pappas has other advantages heading into next year's Olympics. He's 26 to Sebrle's 28 and has completed 26 decathlons to Sebrle's 51.

"Tom's fresher," decathlon expert Frank Zarnowski said. "Roman doesn't have that much room to improve. Tom can get better."

Pappas may hold home-court advantage in Athens. His great grandfather is Greek. "Ninety percent of the e-mail I get from my Web site comes from Greeks," Pappas said.

Pappas has won five of his last six decathlons.

Double in works: Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia stayed on course for unprecedented world championship doubles Thursday when they qualified for Sunday's 5,000 final. El Guerrouj won the 1,500 Tuesday. No man has ever won the 1,500 and 5,000 titles at one world championship; Paavo Nurmi did it at the 1924 Olympics. Bekele is won the 10,000.

More gold: Italian Giuseppe Gibilisco upset the favorites and won the gold medal in the pole vault Thursday. Okkert Brits of South Africa took silver and Patrik Kristiansson of Sweden bronze. Gibilisco, 24, twice improved on his personal best to win with 19 feet, 4 1/4 inches. ... Australian Jana Pittman came from far back to win the 400 meter hurdles. Sandra Glover of the USA was second, and Russian Yuliya Pechonkkina, who led most of the race, was third.

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Contributing: The Associated Press