The 30-year-old from Mississippi, whose only other scoring effort was a first round leap of 6.75m, dedicated her victory to her grandfather, who had died two weeks earlier. 

In her sombre post-race activity, she displayed the words that had been written on the inside of her vest number - "RIP Paw Paw".

Meanwhile, Poland’s Pawel Fajdek, having failed to get past qualifying in the hammer competition at last summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, got back to business as usual as he secured his third consecutive world title with a best effort of 79.81m.

The long jump silver medal went to Russia's Darya Klishina, competing here as a neutral athlete, after she had put together four successive season’s bests, the longest of them – 7.00m exactly - enabling her to finish above the defending champion Tianna Bartoletta of the US, who saved her best for last, as she had in earning this title two years ago, but found it fell short of her ambition at 6.97m.

That, however, was enough to depose the earlier leader, Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic, from a medal place by just one centimetre.

This final had a lot to live up to given that the competition two years in Beijing, and Rio 2016, reached competitive heights never previously reached in this discipline.

All three Olympic medallists were involved in this final, but it was Klishina, carefully overseen by the coach who trains her in the US, Loren Seagrave, who took an early lead with 6.78m.

A leap of 6.96m in the second round projected Spanovic into the lead, although Klishina improved again to 6.88m.

Britain’s Lorraine Ugen, meanwhile, was living dangerously as a second foul put her in danger of failing to make the cut for the final eight after three rounds – as happened to her at Rio 2016. 

But her third effort raised the white flag and 6.72m moved her up into fourth place, eventually earning her a final position of fifth.

Bartoletta’s five scoring jumps progressed upwards from 6.56m. 

Standing in fourth place before her final effort - before which she was obliged to wait as the men’s hammer field was announced - she rose to the challenge like the champion she is, landing on her feet as neatly as a gymnast, but was only able to displace one of the three women above her.

Spanovic, winner of the European indoor title in her native Belgrade earlier this year with a national record of 7.24m, appeared to have reclaimed a place on the podium with her final effort, only to find it was 6.91m, five centimetres less than her previous best.

Pictures suggested that the bib on her back may have indented the sand for the scoring mark. 

A Serbian team appeal was turned down. 

HIgh jumpers and pole vaulters do not have bibs on their back to avoid incidences of this kind.

Klishina, displaced to third by successive jumps from Spanovic and Reese, restored herself to silver with the best effort of a superbly consistent sequence.

Fajdek, who has the nine best throws of the season to his credit, including a best of 83.44m, never hit top form but did enough to stay clear of eventual silver medallist Valeriy Pronkin, another Russian competing as a neutral athlete, whose best of 78.16m kept him ahead of Fajdek’s compatriot Wojciech Nowicki, who earned bronze with 78.03m.