Mbulaeni Mulaudzi © Gallo Images

On Friday Mulaudzi spent anxious minutes awaiting the outcome of the third semifinal as he had been shut out into fourth place in his own race.

The 29-year-old only qualified for the final as the second of two fastest losers, but it was a different man who took control of the race from the gun and held the lead to the finish on Sunday.

Running from the outside lane he closed into the inside and dictated the pace, taking the field through the bell in 53,44 seconds, and then applied more pressure.

With 200m to go he upped the pace again and powered down the home straight, holding off the inevitable challenge from his pursuers.

A desperate, but successful dip to the line earned him the gold medal. Defending champion Alfred Yego and Yusuf Kamel were given identical times of 1:45.35 for silver and bronze respectively.

And Mulaudzi, who already owns an Olympic silver medal, three world indoor medals - including one gold - and bronze from the 2003 World Championships in Paris, said his latest achievement was the best of his career.

"This is the most important medal for me," he said on Sunday.

"Today I was brave enough to control the race and to change the gears in my own time."

Mulaudzi said more can be expected from the Limpopo province, home to both he and 800m women's gold medallist Caster Semenya.

"You can still go to Limpopo now and we will find a new talent there," he said.

Mulaudzi has often paid the price for his poor tactics in championship finals, where he tends to get boxed in on the final stretch, but the world champion said he had worked hard this week on not repeating those mistakes.

"I've done three championships that didn't work out, so I spoke during the week to my wife, my coach (JP van der Merwe) and my manager," Mulaudzi said.

"We spoke about this many times and we agreed I had to run free and relaxed - that's the only way I could run. So I had to control the race.

"At the 300m mark the pace was slow so I picked up as I felt the guys were tired, so I took on a long kick so everyone would die before the finish ... and it worked!"

Earlier in the day South Africa's sole entrant inthe women's marathon, Tanith Maxwell, finished 42nd in 2:41.48 in hot conditions.

"I can't but be disappointed," Maxwell said. "All the championship marathons since 2006 have been run in hot weather. I thought this would be different.

"I was on perfect pace (for a personal best) but got stomach cramp after 25km which slowed me."

China's Xue Bai won in 2:25.15, only ten seconds clear of Japan's Yoshimi Ozaki and 16 seconds ahead of Ethiopian Asselefech Mergia who hung on for the bronze medal.

Apart from both 800m gold medals, South Africa also picked up a silver in the long jump through Khotso Mokoena, although no other athletes reached the finals of their events.

Collecting the nation's first medals since the 2003 World Championships, the team did well to finish ninth on the medals table.

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