The penultimate event of the programme saw 20-year-old home athlete Noah Lyles extend his unbeaten Diamond League sequence over 200 metres as he won in a personal best and meeting record of 19.69sec, the joint fastest time run so far this year.

The defending overall Diamond League champion was pushed towards the line by Commonwealth champion Isaac Makwala, who topped last year’s world lists with 19.77, until the Botswana athlete pulled up with an injury, leaving Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago to come through for second place in 20.05.

The attempt at a sprint double by 22-year-old world 100m silver medallist Christian Coleman did not come to pass, however, as the home athlete’s agency tweeted that, it being his first race of the season, it was "more prudent to only contest the 100m", adding that his  opening 200m would take place at the Bislett Games on June 7.

Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of The Bahamas, making her first appearance of the season over the single lap, laid down a huge marker as she won in 49.52, more than a second clear of the US world champion Phyllis Francis, who clocked 50.81.

Marie-Jose Ta Lou, silver medallist in the 100 and 200m at last year’s World Championships, got into winning mode over the shorter distance in defeating a field that included the Olympic and world champions, respectively Elaine Thompson of Jamaica and home sprinter Tori Bowie.

Ta Lou, of the Ivory Coast, won in 10.88 in a narrowly legal time following wind of 1.9mps, with her compatriot Murielle Ahoure, who won world 60m gold in Birmingham two months ago, second in 10.90 ahead of Thompson, who clocked 10.98.

Bowie had to settle for fifth place in 11.03, one position behind the double world 200m champion Dafne Schippers of The Netherlands, who clocked 11.01.

The final event - the Bowerman Mile - was won by Kenya's world silver medallist Timothy Cheruyiot in 3:49.87, with his compatriot and training partner Elijah Manongoni, the world champion, third in 3:52.18 behind Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefara, who clocked 3:51.26.

But the most remarkable performance of the race came from the athlete finishing just a stride or so behind the world champion - Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, whose time of 3:52.28 was a world age-17 best and European under-20 record.

Qatar's world high jump champion Mutaz Essa Barshim earned a measure of revenge for his defeat in the world indoor final as he defeated the Russian gold medallist in Birmingham, Danil Lysenko, with a best of 2.36m.

Lysenko, competing as an Authorised Neutral Athlete, cleared 2.32, finishing ahead of China's Yu Wang on countback.

A following wind of 2.4mps - 0.4mps over the allowable limit for record purposes - meant some eye-catching times in the 100m, where Coleman clocked 9.84 by still finished behind fellow American Ronnie Baker.

Baker’s winning time of 9.78 was well inside his legal personal best of 9.97, and there was an even bigger fillip for the 22-year-old third-placed Briton, Reece Prescod, who clocked 9.88 just a week after setting a legal personal best of 10.03 in winning at the Shanghai Diamond League.

China’s Bingtian Su also went inside his personal best of 9.99 in finishing fourth in 9.90.

Caster Semenya, who has tweeted a series of defiant messages since the IAAF announced its intention to adopt a new ruling on female athletes with high natural levels of testosterone that threatens to diminish her effectiveness, maintained her stance on the track.

South Africa's 27-year-old world and Olympic 800m champion, unbeaten at the distance since 2015, set a meeting record of 1:55.92 - just 0.76sec off her personal best - to defeat a hugely talented field.

Home runner Ajee Wilson was second in a season’s best of 1:56.86 ahead of Burundi’s world and Olympic silver medallist Francine Niyonsaba, who clocked 1:56.88.  

US Olympic silver medallist athlete Evan Jager came within two thousandths of a second of Kenya’s world and Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto after both finished in 8:11.71.

A photo-finish was required to determine Kipruto’s superior time of 8:11.706.

But both were surprisingly beaten on the night in a relatively slow and tactical race by Kenya’s Benjamin Kigen, who produced a personal best of 8:09.07.

Britain’s Laura Muir, newly qualified after passing her veterinary medicine finals at the University of Glasgow, enjoyed her first race of the season, taking second place in the 1,500m in 3:59.30 behind home runner Shelby Houlihan, who won in a personal best of 3:59.06, with compatriot Jenny Simpson, the 2011 world champion, third in 3:59.37.

Jamaica’s world and Olympic 110m hurdles champion Omar McLeod made the most of a 3.0mps following wind to win in 13.01 ahead of Russian athlete Sergey Shubenkov, the world silver medallist competing as an Authorised Neutral Athlete, who recorded 13.08.

World 1,500m record holder Genzebe Dibaba won the 5,000m in 14:26.89, in front of fellow Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey, who ran a personal best of 14:30.29, and Kenya’s world champion Hellen Obiri, who recorded 14:35.03.

Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser produced a resounding home win with a meeting record of 22.53m.

Six years after winning pole vault gold at the London 2012 Games, Jenn Suhr showed that, at 36, she is still a force to be reckoned with as she defeated a field that included the current world and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi and world indoor champion Sandi Morris, her fellow US athlete.

Suhr and New Zealand’s Eliza McCartney were the only two vaulters to clear 4.85m, with the senior athlete winning on countback.

Morris, the only other vaulter other than world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva to have cleared 5.00m - something she did last season - could only manage third place with 4.70.

After taking silver behind his fellow American Christian Taylor at last year’s IAAF World Championships and the previous year’s Olympics, Will Claye may have felt he was heading for a little payback after taking the lead in the triple jump with a penultimate effort of 17.46m.

Not so.

As so often before, the 27-year-old world and Olympic champion rose to the challenge to win with a final effort of 17.73.