An opening effort of 14.39m was enough to earn Thea Lafond of Dominica silver, although it was a close-run thing as England’s Naomi Metzger jumped out of her skin, crowd-assisted, to produce four efforts which surpassed her previous personal best, managing 14.37m on her third attempt.

As the competition closed Metzger jumped up and down in glee before running to the side to be greeted by her friends and supporters.

For the bulk of the concluding track final, the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, the only question was whether gold would go to Uganda’s Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai or Kenya’s 18-year-old world under-21 champion Jackline Chepkoech after both had broken clear of the field.

With two laps to go the younger woman was striving to get clear, but the yellow shirt of the Ugandan tracked her to the start of the back straight before, to the consternation of the crowd, Chemutai hit the deck at the first barrier.

She recovered, but at the bell she trailed the Kenyan by 25 metres.

Chepkoech was clear, winning in a Games record of 9min 15.68sec, but England’s Elizabeth Bird, flying home, had the stadium in a ferment as she overtook the weary Olympic champion 200 metres from the end and took silver, lowering her own British record to 9:17.79.

Tom Walsh of New Zealand retained his men’s shot put title thanks to his opening effort of 21.98m, although his colleague Jacko Gill came within eight centimetres of that mark with his very last effort, a personal best of 21.90m.

Confirmed as champion, a buoyant Walsh - world champion in 2017 - skipped away from his final effort, raising his arm in the air.

He clearly loved it - and rightly so, as it was 22.26m, the second best in the world this year.

England’s Scott Lincoln earned bronze with a fifth-round effort of 20.57m.

Lindon Victor of Grenada successfully defended his decathlon title as he gave every element of energy to a concluding 1500m race in which Australia’s third-placed Daniel Golubovic made a huge final challenge, finishing 20 seconds clear in 4:30.95 which secured him silver on 8197, behind Victor’s total of 8233.

Golubovic was followed home by England’s Harry Kendall, who tied with Australia’s Alec Diamond on 4:50.22 to finish sixth overall on 7480.

Victor, weary, came home fourth in 4:51.60 - and it was enough.

Golubovic’s team-mate Cedric Dubler, who had led on two occasions earlier in the day, settled for bronze as he finished seventh in 4:58.81, totalling 8030.

England’s Nathan Maguire earned the first gold of the evening as he timed his challenge perfectly in a dramatic men’s T53/54 1500m final.

Maguire’s team-mate Daniel Sidbury went for broke with two laps to go, establishing a lead of 15 metres on the back straight, but by the time he came through for the bell he had Australia’s Samuel Carter and Maguire right behind him.

As the line of three came round the final bend, to towering sound from another packed arena here, Maguire moved round the outside to take the lead, earning gold in 3:11.83, with Sidbury being rewarded for his guts by taking silver in 3:12.15 and bronze going to Carter in 3:12.82.

There were big cheers as England's world 400m bronze medallist and record holder Matthew Hudson-Smith comes home as fastest qualifier for Sunday's final in 45.77sec.

Jamaica’s Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 gold medallist in the women’s 200m, Elaine Thompson-Herah, was fastest qualifier for tomorrow’s final in 22.63, with Nigeria’s Favour Ofili second fastest in 22.66.

Third fastest qualifier was Namibia’s 19-year-old Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Christine Mboma, who had to move down from the 400m following the World Athletics ruling on female athletes with naturally high levels of testosterone.

England’s Zharnel Hughes qualified fastest for tomorrow’s men’s 200m final, clocking 20.32 with a following wind of 2.1mps.

Trinidad and Tobago’s world indoor champion Jereem Richards was second on 20.40, ahead of Ghana’s Joseph Amoah, who ran 20.51.

And England’s Victoria Ohuruogu - younger sister of Christine, who won Olympic, World and Commonwealth 400m titles - was fastest qualifier into Sunday’s women’s 400m final in 51.00, with Sada Williams of Barbados on 51.59 and Malawi’s Asimenye Simwaka third on 51.70.