That crown did not elude Africa, however, as another of the seemingly endless stream of distance running talent, 18-year-old Eliud Kipchoge just edged El Guerrouj to prevent him becoming the first athlete since Pavel Nurmi in the 1924 Olympics to clinch the 1,500m-5,000m double.

The Kenyans had already celebrated earlier when Catherine Ndereba won the women's marathon to deliver the country's first gold medal of the championships, though recent Qatari acquisition Saif Saaeed Shaheen - the athlete formerly known as Kenya's Stephen Cherono - had won the 3,000m steeplechase.

North Africa were not to be left out as Algeria's Djabir Said-Guerni forced himself past Russia's Yuriy Borzakovskiy on the line to take the 800m and end two years of injury misery.

South Africa also got in on the act with Hestrie Cloete retaining her high jump title to make it a golden double for her country as Michael Freitag had won the men's version.

The Americans, still dogged by the controversy surrounding Jerome Young and double sprint champion Kelli White, ended their championships on a winning note taking all three relays.

Young, White's fellow world champion and similarly under a cloud over claims he failed a drugs test in 1999 and then was cleared in an internal inquiry before winning relay gold at the 2000 Olympics, showed little sign of pressure as he anchored the 4x400 team to victory.

Meanwhile, the new young lions of American sprinting, 200m gold and silver medallists John Capel and Darvis Patton, made light of the absences of the fading powers of world record holder Tim Montgomery and Olympic champion Maurice Greene to help their team to the 4x100m gold.

However, it was JJ Johnson who emerged the hero of the race. Starting a metre behind Britain's European champion Dwain Chambers on the final leg, he ran him down to take the glory leaving the Londoner's championships a distinct failure.

Kipchoge explained how he beat the remarkable El Guerrouj.

"I was going to kick and bite to the end," said the world junior cross country champion.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Said-Guerni.

Eight years the senior of Kipchoge, he revealed how injury had sent him to the depths of despair after the early promise of bronze in the 1999 championships and in the 2000 Olympics.

"I have been through two years of hell which my wife and family have also had to endure," said the Algerian.

"I was in the pits but this has restored the joy that was missing from my life."

The three-time world champion Wilson Kipketer failed to land in the money finishing fourth but the 31-year-old Kenyan-born naturalised Dane was refusing to admit the game might be up for him.

"I am still the best in the world," he insisted.

Suitably Sunday saw someone called Moses, Edwin to be exact, officially announce a miraculous return from self-imposed sporting exile - on his 48th birthday.

The former 400m hurdles world record holder and two-time Olympic champion's aim is to qualify for the US Olympic trials next year - a time of 50.55sec - but he will resist the urge to run on the Grand Prix circuit.

"Without doing 50.55 seconds you don't get to the Olympic trials. If you don't get in the first three places you don't go to Athens," said Moses.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm going to Athens to look like a jerk."

Edwin Moses a jerk?

Not likely, but there were some athletes on Sunday who laid down their markers to their golden chances in Athens and, on this evidence, it is looking pretty good for the African continent. 5