That represented a startling turn of events for the traditionally dominant Chinese team, who had secured six medals, and all three titles, on day one, but who managed to glean just one medal, a silver, from today’s action in the Oman capital.

So assured was Sweden’s 31-year-old world 20km bronze medallist that he felt emboldened to don his trademark mock Viking helmet a kilometre before the finish of this first Championship 35km race, finishing clear in 2hr 36min 14sec - naturally enough, a Championship record.

As World Athletics reports, the historic gold medallist was then greeted at the finish area by his mother, Siv Gustavsson, who was the last Swede to win a title at these Championships, back in 1981.

Karlstrom pulled away from his last serious challenger, Spain’s Alvaro Martin, over the final three kilometres, with the latter taking silver in 2:36:54 from team mate Miguel Angel Lopez, who recorded 2:37:27, with Japan’s Masatora Kawano fourth in a personal best of 2:37:36.

The inaugural women’s 35km title went to Ecuador’s exuberant 21-year-old Glenda Morejon, making her debut at the event and winning a dramatically fluctuating race in 2:48:33.

That left her comfortably clear of China’s only medallist of the day, Maocuo Li, second in a national record of 2:50:26, and Poland’s Katarzyna Zdzieblo, who took bronze in 2:51:48.

India’s Priyanka Goswami was a runaway leader over 10km, and a hanging-on leader soon after the 16km mark until Li overtook her.

But by 24km Morejon had accelerated through the field to challenge the Chinese athlete and at 30km she had established a lead of more than 30 seconds which proved to be enough.

Yamanishi - who had been deeply disappointed at taking 20km bronze on home roads at last year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympics - saw off team mate and defending champion Koki Ikeda shortly before the 11 kilometres mark in the final race of the day, making with a decisive move up the hill on a testing course before winning in 1hr 22min 52sec.

Ikeda was second in 1:23:29, with bronze going to Samuel Kireri Gathimba, who clocked 1:23:52 to beat Ecuador’s Brian Pintado, who finished in 1:24:35, to earn Kenya’s first medal at these Championships.

The 34-year-old known as "Speedy" raised his arms to the heavens and then beat them in excitement on the tarmac having sunk to his knees in gratitude.

Morejon’s effort was enough to help Ecuador win team gold from Spain and China, while in the men’s 35km Spain took gold from China and Germany.

The men’s 20km team event saw gold, silver and bronze go respectively to Ecuador, Japan and China.