Lagat puts U.S. on top in the 1,500

OSAKA, Japan -- Bernard Lagat popped his racing singlet, showing his pride in the three blue letters he never had worn on his chest before these world championships.

His adopted country should be as proud of him. Lagat had put those letters, USA, atop the world in the 1,500 meters for the first time in the 99 years since Mel Sheppard won the race at the 1908 Olympics.

As Lagat, a native Kenyan, paraded around Nagai Stadium on Wednesday night with an American flag draped over his shoulders, Alan Webb was angrily ripping the hip number from his uniform and throwing it to the ground.

Webb, also of the U.S., had been the world’s fastest man in the 1,500 meters this season, but he couldn’t find that speed when it mattered most. After leading for much of the race, a strategy usually doomed to failure in championship meet 1,500s, Webb had nothing left in the final 100 meters and wound up eighth.

“I was doing so awesome until this meet and [then] just a colossal breakdown,” Webb said. “I wish I could learn a lesson from that, but I learned nothing. I got nothing out of it.”

The more Webb spoke, the angrier he became.

“If I wanted to get seventh,” he said, fairly spitting out the number, “I would have run for seventh and got seventh or whatever the heck I got. I came here to get first, and I didn’t.”

Lagat won in 3 minutes 34.77 seconds, with defending champion Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain, a native of Morocco, second in 3:35. Shedrack Korir of Kenya was third in 3:35.04. Webb’s time was 3:35.69.

Lagat’s big move in the homestretch, which took him from third place, would put him far enough in the lead that he could look up at himself on the big screen and think, “Oh my God, I’m going to win.”

“I was a little scared about celebrating early,” he said. “I didn’t know how to celebrate this. This is No. 1. I’ve never been like this. I’ve always been second.”

Lagat was second in the 2004 Olympics, his final major competition for Kenya. A controversy emerged after the Chicago Tribune reported that he had become a U.S. citizen before the Olympics, but Kenyan officials did not follow through on a threat to ask that the medal be stripped from Lagat because the country does not allow dual citizenship.

* Wednesday’s other big event:

The women’s high hurdles, in which Michelle Perry of Palmdale won a second consecutive title. Perry had been upset at this year’s U.S. championships by Ginny Powell of Los Angeles, who has been plagued by injuries since.

Powell finished fifth.

* Today’s big event:

The men’s 200 final, in which Tyson Gay hopes to match countryman Justin Gatlin’s 100-200 double win from the 2005 worlds, then try not to repeat Chapter 2, in which Gatlin is banned for doping.

* Quote of the day:

“Never in my wildest dreams could I have thought of coming back after my ban as world champion.” -- Christine Ohurugu of Britain, the 400-meter winner, banned for a year after missing three out-of-competition drug tests. Ohurugu’s ban expired this month.

-- Philip Hersh

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Philip Hersh covers the Olympics for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.