But home fans in the 1912 Olympic Stadium had two wins to celebrate as Daniel Stahl continued to dominate the discus and long jumper Thobias Montler beat last year’s prodigious winner Juan Miguel Echevarria of Cuba.

As if by some immutable law, an extension of the long jump pit, tacitly inviting Echevarria to equal or better the wind-assisted 8.83 metres with which he won here last year, turned out to be unnecessary - on this occasion.

The 20-year-old IAAF World Indoor champion was unable to find the right rhythm and the win went to Montler thanks to a second round effort of 8.22m.

It may not have blown anyone’s socks off, but it was a personal best by 12 centimetres for the European silver medallist.

Echevarria, meanwhile, salvaged some face from what was a largely unproductive evening for him as he reached 8.12m with his last jump to finish second.

Stahl, whose winning effort of 70.56m in the opening Diamond League meeting of the season in Doha leads this year’s world standings, secured another maximum-points effort with a best of 69.57m, having seen an effort that looked close to 73m ruled out for a foul.

Only three men have bettered 73m - with Jurgen Schult of East Germany holding one of the sport’s longest standing world records thanks to his effort of 74.08m in 1986.

Federick Daces of Jamaica was second with 68.96m.

Kenya’s world silver medallist Timothy Cheruyiot won the 1500 metres in a relatively sedate time of 3min 35.79sec to render the speculation over which clan might claim the title - the Manangois or Ingebrigtsens - irrelevant.

There was no late challenge from Cheruyiot’s training partner, world champion Elijah Manangoi, and it fell to Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman to chase him home, distantly, in 3:37.30, with a fast-finishing Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the 18-year-old European 1500 and 5,000m champion, moving from 11th to take third place in the same time.

Manangoi finished 10th, two places behind younger brother George, the IAAF world under-18 and under-20 champion, with Jakob’s elder brother Henrik, the fomer European 1500m champion, finishing between them.

United States sprinting phenomenon Michael Norman, who leads this season’s men’s 400m world listings with 43.45sec - joint fourth fastest ever along with compatriot Jeremy Wariner  -  duly won his first Diamond League 400m, clocking 44.53.

His former college team-mate and current training partner, 400m hurdles specialist Rai Benjamin, led through the first 200m, but Norman forged ahead in the closing stages, with his friend taking second place in 45.13.

Wariner’s meeting record of 43.50 from 2007 remained unchallenged, however.

Britain’s European 100 and 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith earned her second Diamond League win of the season over 200m, beating a field that included Jamaica’s Olympic 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson in 22.18 - fastest in the world this year.

Thompson was a distant second in 22.66.

Asher-Smith’s fellow Briton Laura Muir, the European indoor 1500m and 3,000m champion, won her 1500m in 4:05.37.

"Today was about the win rather than the time with conditions the way they are," Muir said.

Norway’s world 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm was a runaway winner in his race over his specialist distance this year, clocking 47.85sec, despite the dire conditions to go third in this year’s world lists behind leader Abderrahman Samba, who clocked 47.27 in winning the Shanghai Diamond League, and Benjamin, won ran 47.80 in finishing second to him.

"I have no problems with the cold or wind," Warholm said.

"I won in London in the rain and I have to learn to run in all conditions."

Warholm added that he managed to take 13 steps between the hurdles .

"That’s really good in these conditions - so maybe this is the year I will go 13 all the way."

Russian high jumper Mariya Lasitskene, winner of the world title in London two years ago as an Authorised Neutral Athlete, was seeking a fourth win in this meeting against a field that include Ukraine’s rising 17-year-old talent Yaroslava Mahuchikh.

She got it after being the only competitor to clear 1.92m, jumping in leggings to ward off the cold.

There was drama in the women’s 5,000m, where Kenya’s world champion Hellen Obiri fell while leading with 1,000m to go, allowing her compatriot Agnes Tirop to claim the win, registering the fastest time in the world this year – 14:50.82.

In conditions particularly ill-suited to pole vaulting, world champion Sam Kendricks of the US was the man who coped best as he won with a first time clearance of 5.72m.

World 100m hurdles record holder Kendra Harrison coped best with the chilly conditions, pulling away from fellow American Sharika Nelvis after the fifth barrier to win in 12.52.         

Ajee Wilson of the US won the women’s 800m in 2:00.87 to move top of the Diamond League standings - ahead of South Africa’s absent world and Olympic champion Caster Semenya.