There was also a stupendous race in the keenly-anticipated meeting of the 20-year-olds who took respective women’s 800m gold and silver at last year’s Olympics, Athing Mu of the United States and Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, with the American once again prevailing, but this time by a narrower margin as she clocked 1min 56.30sec, the fastest run in 2022, to the latter’s 1:56.38.

Like his near-contemporary Duplantis, Norway’s 21-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen won his first world title a year after taking his first Olympic gold, defeating a stellar field to come home in 13:09.24 five days after being beaten to the 1500m title by Britain’s Jake Wightman.

In the women’s long jump, another Olympic champion prevailed as Germany’s Malaika Mihambo retained her title with a final flourish of 7.12m, her season’s best.

In the decathlon, France’s mercurial 30-year-old world record holder Kevin Mayer reclaimed the title he won five years ago in London, taking full advantage of the previous day’s withdrawal of the Canadian who beat him to the Olympic title last year, Damian Warner.

The pyrotechnics concluded with huge home victories in the 4x400m relay finals, with the men coming home in 2:56.17 and the women in 3:17:79, both times being the fastest of the season.

Fittingly the anchor leg of the second race was run by the woman whose landmark world 400m hurdles record of 50.68sec, improving upon her own mark by almost a second, will be remembered for as long as athletics is remembered - Sydney McLaughlin; who ran a 47.91sec split time...

In Tokyo Mu had come home in a United States record of 1:55.21, with Hodgkinson clocking a British record of 1:55.88.

This time round it was much closer as the two prodigious young talents were separated at the finish line by half a stride having sprinted side by side over the final 80 metres, with the Briton, on the inside, appearing to edge ahead before her leggy rival gained the advantage in the final strides.

"Last year at the Olympics I was very happy with a silver because I was aiming for a medal," Hodgkinson told The Guardian.

"This year all I had on my mind was the gold.

"But the gap’s closing and hopefully one day I’ll get there.

"We have world champs next year so we’ll go again.

"There have been no tears yet.

"I’ll do that in my own time."

The three athletes who followed Mu and Hodgkinson home ran personal bests, with Kenya’s Mary Moraa earning bronze in 1:56.71, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji clocking 1:57.02 and Jamaica’s Natoya Goule recording 1:57.90.

Having missed an Olympic medal by one place last summer, the 25-year-old Amusan, who studied at the University of Texas, moved inexorably to the top of another global podium in Oregon.

Her African record of 12.40 in the previous day’s heats had hinted at what she might do on the last day of competition, and she delivered upon every aspiration.

In the semi-finals she took 0.08sec off the world record as she clocked 12.12.

She then won her first world title in the startling time of 12.06 - only prevented from being a second world record because the following wind was over the allowable limit of two metres-per-second, registering 2.5mps.

Britany Anderson of Jamaica and Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion jasmine Camacho-Quinn both ran huge personal bests to take silver and bronze respectively in 12.23, separated by five thousandths of a second.

Home hurdler Keni Harrison, whose world record of 12.20 had stood since 2016, had followed Amusan home in the first semi-final in 12.27, her season’s best.

In the final Harrison was in contention over the first half but then faded and jogged over the line in last place.

She was later disqualified for knocking down a hurdle with her hands.

Duplantis claimed his first world title with his fifth consecutive world record, taking the mark up to 6.21 having first bettered Renaud Lavillenie’s landmark 2014 effort of 6.16m by a centimetre in 2020.

As so often, this 22-year-old product of a Swedish mother and an American father established victory as a base camp before setting off alone for the peaks.

He secured gold with a first-time clearance of 6.00m, now a commonplace for him, as his US rival Christopher Nilsen, the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, earned another silver on countback as he and Ernest Obiena of the Philippines cleared 5.94m, which was an area record for the latter athlete.

After a first-time clearance of 6.06m Duplantis set the bar at 6.21m, a centimetre more than he managed in winning the world indoor title four months ago in Belgrade - and went over at the second attempt.

Ingebrigtsen, a wounded animal in athletics terms after his 1500m defeat, responded in the only way he could stomach as he earned another superbly assured major victory in 13min 09.24sec after taking a lead he never lost 600 metres from the end of an edgy, tactical race.

Before that he had tracked leaders that included Uganda’s Olympic champion and world record holder Joshua Cheptegei, who won the 10,000m title earlier in the week, part of a field that read like a who’s who of distance racing talents, including Ethiopia’s Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega.

For all the talent assembled, the silver and bronze medals went to runners who were relatively unknown as Kenya’s Jacob Krop was second in 13:09.24 and Oscar Chelimo of Uganda third in 13:10.20.

Such was his assurance in the final straight that the young Norwegian felt emboldened to flash a "no" gesture to his supporters.

"It feels amazing to win this gold," he said.

"This is already my fifth attempt to become a world champion outdoors and my third World Championships.

"So finally, I became the world champion."

He’s 21.

Mayer, always a stronger second-day performer, was energised by the possibilities created after Warner, leading proceedings on the opening day, had pulled up, agonised, in the final event of the 400m.

The 30-year-old Tokyo 2020 runner-up moved into bronze medal position after clearing the equal best pole vault of 5.40m along with home athlete Zachery Ziemek, and took over pole position by winning the javelin with a season’s best of 70.31m before producing another season’s best in the concluding 1500m.

That earned him the title with 8816 points from Canada’s Pierce LePage, who recorded a personal best of 8701, and Ziemek, carrying the home banner following the pre-event suspension of Garrett Scantling, who leads this year’s world rankings with 8867 points, for anti-doping whereabouts failures.

Mihambo, who had arrived in Oregon as Olympic, world and European long jump champion, was stirred into meaningful action by the third-round lead of taken by Nigeria’s Ese Brume with a leap of 7.02m.

In round four the 28-year-old from Heidelberg took over the lead with an effort of 7.09m and compounded her victory with her last-round 7.12, with Brume taking silver and bronze going to Brazil’s Leticia Oro Melo with 6.89m, one centimetre better than home jumper Quanesha Burks.

Silver in the men’s 4x400m relay went to Jamaica in 2:58.58, and Belgium, with two of the three Borlee brothers aboard in Dylan and Kevin, took bronze in 2:58.72.

McLaughlin’s final contribution to the 18th World Athletics Championships brought the United States women’s quartet home comfortably clear of silver medallists Jamaica, who clocked 3:20.74, and Britain, who finished in 3:22.64.

The result also meant that 36-year-old Allyson Felix, called out of the retirement she had announced after helping the United States take bronze in the opening day's mixed 4x400m relay, finished her career with a 20th world medal of golden hue having helped her country reach the final by running in the heats.

That final win brought the total of home golds to 13 as the United States comfortably topped the medals table with a total of 33, from Ethiopia, with four golds from 10, and Jamaica, with two golds, also from 10.