A week ago at the IAAF World Championships, Barshim had left London’s Olympic stadium with his first outdoor global gold medal and today he departed the Alexander Stadium with a new meeting record of 2.40 metres, beating the previous best by two centimetres.

The mark is also the world leader for the year.

But Barshim did not have an easy time of it as he only went over at 2.31m, a height cleared first time by world bronze medallist Majd Eddin Ghazal of Syria, on his third and final attempt.

The Qatari then went clear at 2.33m and 2.35m, at which point Ghazal retired from the competition.

Barshim, second on the all-time lists behind world record holder Javier Sotomayor of Cuba with his 2014 height of 2.43m, had the bar set to 2.39m and clipped it with his heels on his first try.

After an unconvincing second attempt, he requested for the bar to be upped to 2.40m before becoming the first man to clear that height for five consecutive years.

"That jump felt amazing, so I am taking this bar home with me," he said.

"Every time I look at it I will remember that jump.

 "I knew I had that jump in me, but I needed that pressure on my shoulders.

"t was a strong competition which really tested me and that made me perform at my best."

Britain’s Andrew Butchart, sixth at Rio 2016 in the 5,000m as Sir Mo had retained his Olympic title, also walked away from Birmingham with a significant souvenir - the vest worn by his compatriot in his final home track appearance.

It was presented to him by the multiple world and Olympic champion after he had come home without undue stress to win a 3,000m that was not a Diamond League scoring event in 7min 38.64sec.

"It has been an amazing week" said Farah, who took the silver medal in the 5,000m in London after retaining his world 10,000m title.

"I’ve managed to have a bit of downtime with the family and relax, but emotions have been high coming into this event, not as much as London but it is my last time at home and I really enjoyed it."

Farah's final track race now looms up in Zurich on Thursday (August 24) as he competes in one of the two IAAF Diamond League finals, the second of which will take place in Brussels on September 1.

The women’s 3,000m was won by Sifan Hassan in a Dutch record of 8:28.90 after Kenya’s world 5,000m champion Hellen Obiri had run out of energy as she tried to kick for home with 200m go to.

Jamaica’s Olympic 100 and 200m champion Elaine Thompson showed she was back to something like her true form after finishing only fifth in London as she won in 10.93sec over the shorter of the distances. 

World 100 and 200m silver medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast came second in 10.97.

Botswana’s Isaac Makwala, who ended an eventful World Championships without any material reward for his talent, faded in the 200m here to allow the gold medallist from London, Ramil Guliyev of Turkey, to win in 20.17.

But the women’s world 200m champion Phyllis Francis of the United States was well beaten as Bahrain’s 19-year-old world silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser finished strongly to win in 50.59 

She came ahead of multiple world and Olympic champion Allyson Felix of the United States.

In the field events, world champion Tom Walsh trailed Olympic champion Ryan Crouser for the first four rounds of the shot put, 21.29m to the American thrower’s 21.55m.

However, a fifth-round throw of 21.75m put the New Zealander into the lead and he ended his series with 21.83m.

After two rounds of the discus, world and Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic was down in fourth place with a best of just 62.49m.

But the Croatian produced a throw of 67.22m in the third round to take a lead which she did not relinquish.

Greek world and Olympic champion Ekaterini Stefanidi maintained her unbeaten run in the pole vault, requiring 4.75m to win.

The women’s triple jump was one of the closest contests of the day, as Colombia’s 2016 Olympic champion Caterine Ibarguen claimed victory with a last effort of 14.51m.

This helped her finish just seven centimetres in front of Jamaica's Kimberly Williams, while Venezuela's recently crowned world champion Yulimar Rojas struggled and came seventh.

Jake Wightman won the Emsley Carr Mile, a race that dates back to 1953, in 3:54.92, 0.09 seconds ahead of fellow Briton Chris O’Hare, with Ben Blankenship of the US third in 3:55.89.