Johnson-Thompson trailed the favourite Anna Hall of the US by 93 points overnight, and moved into the lead for the first time by leading the long jump with a 6.54 metres effort.

A personal best in the javelin throw of 46.14m had her firmly on course for gold, but Hall hit back with a crucial 44.88m effort on her final attempt which limited Johnson-Thompson's advantage to 43 points.

The 800 metres favoured Hall and it was clear she was going to cross the finish line first, which she ultimately did in 2min 4.09sec, but the 2019 world champion Johnson-Thompson kept her in range and set her own personal best of 2:05.63.

That ensured she finished with 6,740 points, which was 20 more than Hall.

Anouk Vetter of The Netherlands took bronze with 6,501, helped by a leading 59.57 metres in the javelin.

It was a remarkable feat from Johnson-Thompson, who ruptured her Achilles in 2020, tore her calf in the 200m at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics and finished eighth at last year's World Championships since her triumph in Doha four years ago.

She expressed her elation at returning to the top of the podium.

"This has been one of the most gruelling heptathlons I've ever done - the delayed start yesterday, the long day, then I got about three hours sleep last night," Johnson-Thompson said.

"But all these girls deserve such huge respect.

"I just knew I could prove to myself and prove to all the people that I could still do it.

"This is the culmination of so much hard work.

"I'm so happy I'm crying. I can't help it.

"Today I know if I believed in myself I could do it and I had two great performances."

Johnson-Thompson's success was followed by a third consecutive gold at the World Championships in the men's 10,000m for Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei.

He moved onto the front on the final lap and held off his closest challengers for victory in 27:51.42.

Kenya's Daniel Ebenyo and Olympic champion Selemon Barega of Ethiopia pushed him hard, but had to settle for silver and bronze with times of 27:52.60 and 27:52.72 respectively.

The evening concluded with back-to-back 200m world champion Lyles powering to 100m gold with a world-leading 9.83.

The battle for silver and bronze proved incredibly tight with three athletes finishing in 9.88, but back-to-back under-20 world champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana took second and Zharnel Hughes of Britain third, with Jamaica's Oblique Seville agonisingly missing the podium.

The 2019 world champion Christan Coleman of the US placed fifth in 9.92 in the final, but his compatriot and defending champion Fred Kerley as well as Italy's Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs were knocked-out in the semi-finals.

Paweł Fajdek of Poland's run of five consecutive men's hammer throw world titles came to an end as he had to settle for fourth with 80.00 metres.

Bence Halász of Hungary had provided hope of the host nation's first-ever World Championships gold medal on the St Stephen's Day national holiday, but his 80,82m was only enough for bronze.

Canada's Ethan Katzberg took gold with 81.25m, with Poland's Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki earning silver with 81.02m.

After World Championships bronze medals in Moscow in 2013 and Beijing in 2015, Ivana Vuleta of Serbia finished on top of the women's long jump podium for the first time.

She dominated the final, and triumphed with a world-leading 7.14m, improving on an earlier 7.05m jump.

Tara Davis-Woodhall of the US, banned for one month in April after testing positive for cannabis which led to her being stripped of the national title, took silver with 6.91m.

Alina Rotaru-Kottmann of Romania climbed into the final medal position with her final attempt of 6.88m, usurping Ese Brume of Nigeria with her season best of 6.84m.

In one of the upsets of the day, world leader Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica crashed out of the 110m hurdles after stumbling on the penultimate hurdle in his heat.

Medals are available in the men's triple jump, discus throw and 110 metres hurdles and the women's 100m tomorrow.