A first round effort of 90.54m confirmed a successful defence of the men’s javelin title by Grenada’s Anderson Peters, while two other Olympic champions, Portugal’s triple jumper Pedro Pablo Pichardo and Kenya’s 800m runner Emmanuel Korir, secured their first world outdoor gold medal.

Tsegay, who took women’s 1500m silver behind Kenya’s double Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon earlier in the week in a pulsating final, went one better on the penultimate day of the Championships after a courageous display of front-running against a stellar field.

There were strong parallels in her triumph with the world 200m breakthrough of Jamaica’s 28-year-old Shericka Jackson, whose previous career had also been a story of silver and bronze.

Just as she had done in the 1500m final, the 27-year-old Ethiopian, who won Olympic bronze at this distance last year, set the pace from the off.

She led through 3,000m until her compatriot Letesenbet Gidey, the world record holder who had earlier won her first global gold in the 10,000m, moved into a narrow lead with just over two laps remaining.

But as the field rounded the final bend for the last time it was being led by the Dutch Olympic champion Sifan Hassan.

Tsegay overtook her and held on against all comers down the final straight to cross the line in 14min 46.29sec to thwart the final challenge of Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, who took silver in 14:46.75.

Ethiopia’s Dawit Seyaum ran 14:47.36 to beat Kenya’s Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi to bronze, with the latter recording 14:47.71.

Gidey, not one of the event’s fast finishers, eventually finished fifth in 14:47.98, with Hassan, who has not been at her best this year, sliding from first to sixth in the final metres where she is usually electric, eventually recording 14:48.12.

After the home clean sweeps in the men’s 100 and 200 metres the home crowd at Hayward Field may have been expecting further glory in the day’s concluding 4x100m relay finals, but while their women delivered their men - minus the world 100m champion Fred Kerley - were beaten to the prize by their local rivals Canada, who were inspired by their revivified Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse.

De Grasse, who decided against competing in the 200m after failing to reach the 100m final, had watched helplessly in the morning session as his wife, the United States’ defending 100m hurdles champion Nia Ali, had come to grief in the heats after hitting the ninth hurdle while leading.

But, energised by this concluding challenge, he anchored Canada home in national record of 37.48sec, the fastest time run this year, with a final rolling split of 8.79sec, the swiftest in the final after the 8.77 clocked by Commonwealth champion Akani Simbine as he brought South Africa home sixth in 38.10.

The United States effort had faltered at the final changeover, where Elijah Hall stumbled as he handed over to individual silver medallist Marvin Bracy.

Canada’s other shining light was second leg runner Jerome Blake, timed at 8.86 in a victory that prompted comparisons with the nation’s 4x100m victory at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics anchored by individual champion Donovan Bailey.

"It means everything," said De Grasse.

"We've been talking about this for a few years now.

"It feels good to get it here - a lot of Canadian fans here so it almost feels like home soil."

Double world 200m champion Noah Lyles played his part in the home effort with a second leg split of 8.94, the fastest US performance, but Bracy could not catch De Grasse despite clocking 8.95 on his anchor leg.

Bronze, in 37.83, went to a British quartet that included two of those who had won 4x100m silver at the previous year’s Olympics, Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, only to have the performance annulled by the subsequent positive doping test for team-mate CJ Ujah.

Jona Efoloko ran well in the first leg on his senior debut having come into the team in place of the out-of-sorts Adam Gemili, who had spoken after failing to qualify from his 200m heat of the pressure he felt in remaining with his coach Rana Reider, banned from the site while under investigation by the US Center for SafeSport following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Remarkably, however, the United States secured the women’s 4x100m title, beating a Jamaican quartet that included the trio who had swept the medals in the individual 100m - Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 200m champion Shericka Jackson and double Olympic 100 and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah.

The home team’s 200m specialist Abby Steiner provided their fastest split with a second leg of 9.86 before Twanisha Terry clocked 9.88 in bringing the baton home in 41.14, the fastest time run this year.

Jackson was unable to overtake her on the last leg, despite clocking an astonishing 9.66.

Bronze went to Germany in 42.03 as the British quartet’s high hopes sank to sixth place in 42.75, with 200m bronze medallist Dina Asher-Smith looking as if she had had a recurrence of the hamstring injury that undermined her Olympic ambitions last year as she shrieked in pain before struggling on to pass the baton to Darryl Neita, who finished with a split of 9.57.

There are now fears that the former world 200m champion may not be fit for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games which start on July 28, and her defence of the European 100 and 200m titles in Munich next month is also in doubt.

Peters, who leads this season’s world list with 93.07 was a dominant figure in the men’s javelin final.

He established a lead that no other thrower matched with a first-round effort of 90.21m before extending his best to 90.46m in the next round before saving the best to last after three more solid high 80m throws.

India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra took silver with 88.13m ahead of the Olympic silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, who threw a best of 88.09m.

In the men’s triple jump Pichardo, the Cuban-born athlete who has competed for Portugal since 2019, earned his first world title thanks to an opening mark of 17.95m, the best achieved this year.

Burkino Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango also laid down a big marker in the first round with 17.55m, which was enough for him to earn silver ahead of China’s Yaming Zhu, who had a second-round best of 17.31 in a final where the top six exceeded 17m.

The men’s 800m also saw the Olympic champion earn a first world title as Kenya’s 27-year-old Emmanuel Korir came home in a season’s best of 1min 43.71sec in a final that was bereft of home runners, including the world 2019 champion Donavan Brazier, who had exited in the heats.

Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati claimed silver in 1:44.14 ahead of Canada’s Marco Arop in 1:44.38, with Kenya’s 17-year-old world under-20 champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi fourth in 1:44.54.

There was drama in the fifth and final event of the decathlon’s opening day as Canada’s 32-year-old Olympic and world indoor champion Damian Warner, the event’s Mr Reliable, crashed out of contention as he failed to finish the 400 metres because of a hamstring injury, having maintained his first session lead with a season’s best of 2.05m in the high jump.

Ayden Owens-Delerme of Puerto Rico carries the overnight lead on 4606 points from Canada’s Commonwealth silver medallist Pierce LePage on 4485 and Zachery Ziemek, flying the flag for the hosts following the whereabouts transgression doping suspension imposed on the leading performer this year, Garrett Scantling, third on 4469.

Australia’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Ash Moloney, fifth on 4378, and France’s world record holder Kevin Mayer, sixth on 4372, will both be looking forward to day two with relish.

Allyson Felix, the illustrious 36-year-old sprinter recalled from apparent retirement by the US team after helping to earn bronze in the opening day’s 4x400m mixed relay, ran the fastest split for the home team as they headed qualifying for tomorrow’s final.

The United States clocked 3min 23.38sec ahead of Britain’s 3:23.92 and the 3:28.89.

It looks like Felix is going to end up with a 20^th World Championship medal - and perhaps even a 14^th golden one.

The home quartet also came home as fastest qualifiers in the men’s 4x400m heats in 2min 58.96sec from Japan, who clocked 3:01.53, and Jamaica, who finished in 3:01.59.