She clocked 8min 58.78sec and defeated Olympic champion and world record holder Ruth Jebet of Bahrain in the process at Hayward Field.

Chespol's performance bettered the world junior record of 9:05.70 she had set earlier this month at the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting of the season in Doha, 

The Kenyan has become the third woman to better nine minutes along with Russia’s Gulnara Galkina, who ran 8:58.81 at the Beijing Olympics which stood as a world record for eight years, and Jebet, whose best of 8:52.78 was set in Paris last August.

Chespol moved to the front with 600 metres remaining and appeared poised for victory, but gasps went through the crowd as she stopped suddenly after emerging from the water to fix a loose shoe. The move cost her the best part of 20 metres, with both Jebet and Kenyan compatriot Beatrice Chepkoech taking an immediate advantage.

However, she recovered steadily over the following 300 metres before surging down the home straight for a convincing win.

The 20-year-old Jebet finished third in 9:03.52 with Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech moving to fifth on the all-time list as she clocked 9:00.70 to take second place.

During the session, Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba fell short in her attempt on the women's world 5,000m record.

Dibaba, Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist and world record holder at 1,500m, recorded 14:25.22 in the final event of the evening, which was enough to give her victory by more than 10 seconds from Kenya’s Lilian Rengeruk, but well short of her elder sister Tirunesh’s eight-year-old world mark of 14:11.15.

The third Diamond League meeting of the season was somewhat tarnished by the failure of 10 prospective competitors – including Russia’s 110m hurdles world champion Sergey Shubenkov, cleared to race under neutral colours given the continuing ban on his country’s athletes for doping infractions – to gain visas in time.

Organiser Tom Jordan said it was the first time in nearly a decade that athletes had encountered visa problems traveling to the United States for the meeting, adding that the athletes affected were from various countries, including Russia and Ethiopia.

Shubenkov's visa was approved on Thursday, too late for him to travel to Oregon, according to his Instagram post. 

No reason was given for the delay.

Spectators were still able to see some top class action in the women’s long jump competition featuring five competitors who have jumped over 7m.

Olympic champion Tianna Bartoletta had to settle for second place in front of a home crowd with 6.83m as her team-mate and the London 2012 champion Brittney Reese re-stated her continuing ambitions with a best of 7.01m.

Britain’s Lorraine Ugen was third with 6.78m, eight centimetres ahead of another Russian competing under a neutral flag who was already in the US, Darya Klishina.

In the women's javelin, Belarus' Tatsiana Khaladovich won with her throw of 66.30m.

China's Shiying Liu finished second with 65.21 while Croatian Sara Kolak was a further 57 centimetres behind in third.

It was a memorable day of athletics in the country as at the National Collegiate Athletic Association West Prelims down in Austin, Texas, 22-year-old Fred Kersey set a new US Collegiate 400m record of 43.70 to go seventh on the all-time list.

Kerly, who is studying at the University of Texas A&M, eclipsed the 1991 mark of 44.00 by Quincy Watts, who went on the following year to win the Barcelona Olympic title in a then world record of 43.50.

Only six men have ever run faster than Kerley - South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk, who won the Rio 2016 title in a world record of 43.03, and US quintet Michael Johnson, Butch Reynolds, Jeremy Warner, Quincy Watts and LaShawn Merritt.

The precipitous arrival of this latest talent will make the men’s 400m an event to look out for all the way to this summer’s IAAF World Championships in London.

“Just here to make a lil history” proclaimed Kerley on Twitter. 

He added: "No one can stop what God has planned for your."

Watts was on hand at the meeting, hugging Kerley and shaking his hand as he came off the track.