The 29-year-old has always finished her races strongly, but never as dramatically as this.

After a day of rain and then sun in the Russian capital, there were tears and then smiles from the Londoner on the rostrum.

"I just thank God for everything," Ohuruogu said.

"It's like a dream.

"It's too much."

This photo-finish provided by Seiko shows how narrowly Britain's Christine Ohuruogu beat Amantle Montsho of Botswana in a photo finish during the women's 400 metres final

It was almost too much for Montsho, who said afterwards that she had not realised how the British runner had closed the gap.

"I did not see Christine coming," she said.

"I think if I had I would have pulled my chest forward and would still have made it.

"She knows how to plan a race, and she is very strong at the end."

Both runners were left waiting for information on the main scoreboard after the race as the Seiko people got down to the fine tuning.

"After the race I didn't want to get too excited until my name was there," Ohurogu said.

Lavillenie was always under pressure after taking two attempts to clear his opening height of 5.65, and only passed 5.89 at the third attempt.

By contrast, Holzdeppe cleared 5.65, 5.82 and 5.89 at the first attempt before failing at 5.96.

It was an excruciating moment for the Frenchman.

As he waited to make the final vault of the competition it was sudden death.

One vault...to win gold, to complete his set.

And all in front of his watching younger brother Valentin, who had remained at his side during the competition despite failing to record a mark in his opening height of 5.50m.

After brushing the bar off with his right thigh, Lavillenie remained on the landing pad, head in hands, for a good few seconds, before setting off with grim determination to find and congratulate the German, who by this time was at the centre of a seething mass of celebrating supporters and swarming photographers.

A distinctly mixed day for Famille Lavillenie...

Moscow heartbreak for French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie as he sees his chances of a grand slam disappear in an event won by Germany's Raphael Holzdeppe

Jamaican flags flew in celebration at the end of the women's 100m final, just as they had for Usain Bolt in the previous night's men's sprint, after double Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had finished a metre clear of a field including four Americans to take gold in 10.71, the fastest in the world this year.

Murielle Ahoure's celebrations were as animated as those of Fraser-Pryce as she took silver for the Ivory Coast in 10.93, with the United States defending champion, Carmelita Jeter, salvaging bronze in 10.94 after recovering from a relatively sluggish start.

But part of that was appearance, as Fraser-Pryce, one lane to her left, floated away to a fantastic start and then maintained her form, with her dyed-pink ponytail switching behind her.

The top five runners all broke 11 seconds, with English Gardner of the US and Kerron Stewart of Jamaica fourth and fifth respectively on the same given time, 10.97, 0.07 ahead of Nigeria's long jump silver medallist Blessing Okagbare.

Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was a clear winner of the women's 100 metres

The bulky and bespectacled figure of Pawel Fajdek provided the third surprise of the night as he took the hammer title ahead of Olympic champion Kriztian Pars of Hungary and former Olympic champion Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia with a first round throw of 81.97m, the best in the world this year.

There were no surprises in the women's shot put final, where New Zealand's defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Valerie Adams finished almost a metre clear of everyone in the field save Germany's Christina Schwanitz, who took silver with 20.41m, 47 centimetres less than the Kiwi managed.

David Oliver's victory in the 110m hurdles in 13.00sec, the fastest time in the world this year, was not exactly a surprise given this powerful American's record coming into Moscow – he had the fastest time of 2013, 13.03, to his credit.

But it was a first global title for an athlete who has promised much for long, and the emotions showed as that thought sank in.

Oliver's compatriot Ryan Wilson took silver in 13.17, but Russia's Sergey Shubenkov prevented a clean sweep as he finished one place ahead of defending champion Jason Richardson in 13.24 to spark noisy celebrations from a relatively sparse crowd - the Stadium was less than half full - which had early marked Antonina Krivoshapka's home bronze in the 400m.

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