Big-time performance for Williams in 100 meters

HELSINKI -- The rain and wind were in her face all the way down the track, but Lauryn Williams was oblivious. ''I was in the zone," she said. ''I didn't even notice it." From the moment America's HO-scale sprinter (5 feet 2 inches but still growing) settled into the blocks inside the Olympic Stadium, this was her night, her moment, her redemption.

''My new saying is, 'Silver feels good but gold feels great,' " proclaimed the 21-year-old Williams after she'd won the women's 100-meter dash by the length of her pigtail in 10.93 seconds, ahead of Jamaica's Veronica Campbell (10.95) and France's Christine Arron (10.98) at the Outdoor World Track and Field Championships.

Silver was as good as it got for Williams at last summer's Olympics, where she was beaten by Yuliya Nesterenko, whom nobody but track nuts and Belarussians knew anything about, and then blew the relay by running out of the exchange zone.

This time, Williams vowed, she would settle for nothing less than her best.

''Whatever it was," she said. ''I hoped it would be a gold. Today, it was."

There was fulfillment all around yesterday. Sweden's Kajsa Bergqvist, who missed the Olympics and the subsequent indoor season with a torn Achilles' tendon, came back to win the women's high jump in 6 feet 7 1/2 inches ahead of surprising US collegian Chaunte Howard (6-6 3/4). ''This was my chance," said the 28-year-old Bergqvist, who'll likely never get a better one.

Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, the Olympic champion whose fiancee died in January after collapsing following a training run, ran with a fierce urgency to retain his 10,000-meter title at the wire in 27:08.33, ahead of countryman Sileshi Sihine (27:08.87) and Kenya's Moses Mosop (27:08.96).

''It is very important for me," said Bekele, who stated that he would ''absolutely not" try to double in Sunday's 5,000. ''This year after I lost my fiancee, I have sadness in my heart."

And Ivan Tikhon, the Belarussian hammer thrower who received a silver upgrade in the mail after Olympic victor Adrian Annus was nailed for doping, retained his world title with a meet-record heave of 275-2.

Williams's victory, the sixth in the last seven global meets by an American, was the highlight of the evening for the US, which also had all three entrants (Sanya Richards, DeeDee Trotter, and Monique Henderson) advance to tomorrow's women's 400 final and Alan Webb qualify second (3:36.07) in the men's 1,500, where no Yank has won a medal since 1987. ''This was my goal all year, to make the final," said Webb, who went out in the first round in Athens.

Howard's silver, the best US showing ever in the women's high jump, was a delightful bonus from someone who was only 13th in her qualifying group (''I just froze up") at the Olympics. ''When I woke up this morning," said the Georgia Tech senior, ''I saw the medal."

Williams, who said she had tossed and turned in her sleep from excitement and nerves, didn't know what she'd see. She was only third at the US trials behind Me'Lisa Barber and Muna Lee and had been beaten by Chandra Sturrup at Lausanne and by Arron at Oslo. ''All eight lanes were loaded," she said. ''I didn't put anything past any of them."

What Williams needed was both a great start and a great finish, and she knew it. ''I usually have one or the other," she said.

Her start was superb, off cleanly and chugging away. But if the finish hadn't been there, too, she could have been third, since Campbell and Arron were closing.

Williams thought she'd won when she crossed the line, but dared not celebrate.

''I was pretty sure, but I didn't put my hand up or anything else," she said. ''I'm not going to do all that gallivanting until I see it on the board."

Once Williams did -- the video replay was all she needed -- she began looking for a flag to carry. Justin Gatlin had done it on Sunday.

''It was wonderful," she said. ''He set the tone."

Williams has cashed the double, the first time the US has won both the men's and women's 100 since Maurice Greene and Marion Jones did it in 1999.

''I'm floating right now," she said.

With her Olympic silver and global gold, Williams has become the new domestic female star in an event that has been losing them quickly the last couple of years. Jones has been on the downhill slope ever since Sydney five years ago, beset by drug allegations and running high-school times. Kelli White and Torri Edwards, who went 1-2 at the last world meet in Paris, are both sitting out on doping bans.

Now comes Williams, 62 inches of speed and exuberance.

''I'm just getting started, I'm only 21 still," she said. ''And I've been drinking a lot of milk. I might get to be 5-3 next year."