Jamaica's sprinting dominance continued in sizzling style on Monday when Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser clocked 10.73 seconds to win the women's world 100 metres, 24 hours after Usain Bolt's 9.58 in the men's event.
At the other end of the track spectrum, Kenenisa Bekele was again awesome as he won the 10,000 metres gold for the fourth time in a row but Yelena Isinbayeva's bid for a hat-trick of pole vault titles imploded when she failed to clear a height, allowing Poland's Anna Rogowska to take a shock gold.
Primoz Kozmus added the hammer world title to his Olympic crown and Cuba's Yargelis Savigne retained her triple jump title.
Spain's Marta Dominguez, 33, ran the final straight like a teenager to take gold in the women's steeplechase, waving her headband in the air as she crossed the line.
As in the Olympics, the sprints at the world championships have been turned into a local turf war between Jamaica and the United States and, as in Beijing, it is the yellow vests coming out on top.
Fraser was the fastest of the semi-finalists and exploded from the blocks in the final to win in 10.73 seconds.
Kerron Stewart made a late surge but finished two hundredths adrift and had to settle for silver, as she had in Beijing.
Only Florence Griffith-Joyner and Marion Jones have run faster than Fraser but she said she had expected something special.
"I made the perfect start and executed well," she said. "I left all the world behind me down there on the track."
America's Carmelita Jeter prevented a repeat of Jamaica's Olympic clean sweep as she took bronze in 10.90, edging defending champion Veronica Campbell-Brown into fourth.
BRILLIANT BEKELE
Bekele won the 10,000 the way he won the last three, as well as two Olympic golds, with a devastating last lap that this time left long-time rival Zersenay Tadese suddenly 30 metres adrift.
The Ethiopian had a moment of eye-popping panic when officials wrongly rang the bell for the second time as he crossed the finishing line, but his time of 26 minutes 46.31 seconds confirmed he had matched compatriot Haile Gebrselassie's achievement of winning four successive titles.
The regularity of that sub-60 seconds final lap makes it no less impressive and the Berlin crowd, still abuzz from Bolt's performance on Sunday, rose in recognition of an athlete who rivals the Jamaican for quality, if not pizzazz.
Isinbayeva came to Berlin seeking a third successive world title having also won the last two Olympic golds and totally dominated the event for a decade.
As usual, she spent the first 90 minutes prone in her tracksuit with a towel over her face but when she did join the fray, instead of delivering her usual demolition job she looked sluggish and out of sorts.
She barely got off the ground attempting 4.75 metres, then twice failed miserably at 4.80.
That left Rogowska the winner as the only woman to clear 4.75, with compatriot Monika Pyrek and American Johnson sharing silver with 4.65.
"I have no proper explanation of what happened," said the tearful Russian.
There is no question about the highlight of Tuesday's programme - the return to the track of Usain Bolt.
The Jamaican, proud owner of a 100 metres world record of 9.58 seconds, begins his assault on the 200 in morning heats but 2007 champion Tyson Gay, second in the 100, will not be there having withdrawn with a groin injury.
There are medals on the table for the men's steeplechase, 400m hurdles and triple jump as well as the women's 400m and javelin.
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