Christine Ohuruogu ran one of the greatest and the fastest races of her life to take the world championship 400m title, eclipsing the British record set in the year she was born.
The British team captain lined up inside defending champion Amantle Montsho of Botswana, who owned four of the six fastest times in the world this year.
But Ohuruogu, whose home-straight cavalry charges are legendary, took the title in 49.41 seconds with a brilliantly-timed dip on the line.
Ohuruogu, 29, the 2007 world champion and 2008 Olympic champion, could hardly contain her excitement as she realised she’d won.
“I just thank God for everything. I can’t believe it,” she said. “I had no idea I’d won it, and I didn’t want to get over-excited. Then my name came up first.
“It’s like a dream. I am just so happy.”
Later, she reflected on one of greatest wins of an already glittering career by just four-thousandths of a second.
She said: “I knew I was behind and thinking that if it is coming down to the wire at least I was going to make it hard for her.
“But I didn’t know I’d won. I looked up to the screen and there was nothing. Then I heard the crowd screaming. And I thought, ‘Do I really want to see what happened?’
“I knew it was tight, but I don’t care how tight it is to be honest. I knew that I just had to throw myself at the line. I haven’t slept for weeks thinking about this. I knew it would come down to Montsho and me on the line.”
Britain’s Asha Philip, seventh in 11.35 secs, went out at the semi-final stage in what turned out to be one of the best events of the championships so far, the women’s 100m final.
The anticipated fireworks materialised, with double Olympic gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce taking the title in a world-leading 10.71 secs, with the first five ducking under the 11-second barrier.
In the men’s 400m Nigel Levine placed 14th overall from the 24 starters in the three semis, finishing sixth in 45.60. LeShawn Merritt of the US led the qualifiers with 44.60.
With no Jessica Ennis-Hill through injury, the baton in the heptathlon passed to 20-year-old Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who ended the first day of competition in sixth place with 3739 points after four events.
After qualifying for his third consecutive world championships 110m hurdles final as a fastest loser in 13.34, William Sharman finished fifth in last night’s final, in 13.30. Sharman finished fourth in 2009 and fifth in 2011.