Treble top for Bolt in relay

With this being such a traumatic time in the history of athletics, the Jamaican star has been portrayed as the saviour of the sport against the man cast as its number one villain, Justin Gatlin.

Bolt rode to the rescue with triumphs in the 100m and 200m, doing so again in the relay by anchoring the Jamaican team of Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell and Nickel Ashmeade to victory in a world-leading 37.36 seconds.

Two-times drug cheat Gatlin again looked like he would have to settle for silver, but that was stripped from the USA just minutes after the race.

A sloppy baton change between Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers - sprinters who, like Gatlin, have served doping bans - saw them disqualified in a race the British team did not even finish.

Richard Kilty, Danny Talbot, James Ellington and Chijindu Ujah had the potential to secure a podium spot, but once again a baton changeover proved their undoing.

Ellington and Ujah messed up the on the last leg - two years after the former's changeover with the omitted Harry Aikines-Aryeetey saw bronze chalked off in Moscow.

The British women fared much better 20 minutes earlier in their 4x100m final, although they too left without a medal.

Asha Philip, Dina Asher-Smith , Jodie Williams and Desiree Henry underlined their class with a wonderful display, producing a national record of 42.10secs.

It was an exciting display a year out from the Olympics and just seven hundredths of a second off bronze, won in a national record time by Trinidad and Tobago.

United States took silver behind a Jamaica team brought home by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in a championship record of 41.07s - the second quickest time of all-time.