SAINT-DENIS, France -- Having flopped at the Sydney Olympics and failed in the NFL, John Capel sat in the office of Kansas City Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil in the summer of 2002 and was told to re-evaluate his life.

"He said, 'John, you've got to go home and do what you're best at,' and running is what I do best," Capel said. "If you talk to Coach Vermeil, tell him I love him."

Vermeil's advice paid off Friday night when Capel led a 1-2 U.S. finish in the men's 200 meters at the World Championships.

Capel won gold on a wet track. He led off the turn, fell behind, but recovered to win in 20.30 seconds, edging Darvis Patton, the U.S. champion, by one-hundredth of a second. It was the first time since 1983 that Americans took gold and silver in the men's 200 at the world meet.

After crossing the finish line, Capel and Patton held hands and knelt together in prayer. They hugged and walked arm-in-arm around the track, draped with the U.S. flag.

After all that American male sprinters have been through this week at the world meet, the U.S. team finally had something to cheer. And the celebration continued, with Dwight Phillips winning gold in the long jump and Joey Woody taking silver in the 400-meter hurdles.

Capel and Patton salvaged the reputation of U.S. sprinters, who had been shut out in the men's 100 at the world meet for the first time since 1995. Those failing to get a 100 medal included world-record holder Tim Montgomery and three-time world champion Maurice Greene.

"It means the United States ain't lost our pep yet," Capel said. "Especially with the U.S. being down, it feels good."

Capel was a big disappointment at the 2000 Sydney Olympics _ he was favored in the 200, but got a terrible start in the final and finished last.

"Sydney, Australia, haunts me every night. You might as well be shot if you do something like I did," he said. "After Sydney, it seemed that everything came crashing down."

He came home angry and depressed. He fought with his wife and mother. He changed his focus to football, but four marijuana arrests got him kicked off the Chicago Bears roster before training camp in 2001. The following year, the wide receiver was the last cut of the Chiefs.

"It wasn't that I couldn't play in the league, but it's that I kept getting myself in trouble," he said.

Shingo Suetsugu was third in the 200, the first Japanese to win a sprint medal at a World Championships or Olympics. Defending champion Kostas Kenteris of Greece pulled out of the event on Tuesday because of a thigh injury.

Capel threw his sunglasses into the crowd after his win. As he and Patton made their way slowly around the track on a victory lap, they stopped by the long jump area to exhort U.S. teammate Phillips, who went on to win gold.

Phillips' victory came after a streak of four consecutive gold medals by Cuba's Ivan Pedroso, who aggravated an ankle injury in the qualifying rounds and failed to reach the final.

Felix Sanchez, a native of New York who runs for the Dominican Republic, extended his winning streak to 30 races in the 400-meter hurdles by winning the gold.

Also Friday, Allen Johnson had the fastest time of 13.19 in the semifinals of the men's 110-meter hurdles, and will be a big favorite in Saturday's final as he bids for his fourth world title.

Johnson will be joined in the final by U.S. teammates Larry Wade, Terrence Trammell and Chris Phillips. There are four Americans in the event because Johnson got an automatic slot as defending champion.

But Regina Jacobs, running a day after her 40th birthday, faded down the stretch in her semifinal of the 1,500 and failed to reach Sunday's final. Jacobs, a 12-time U.S. champion in the 1,500, won world silver medals in 1997 and 1999.