Commonwealth champion Kim Collins was crowned king of the sprinters as Britain's Darren Campbell snatched an unexpected 100metres bronze at the World Championships in Paris tonight.
But there was huge disappointment for gold medal favourite Dwain Chambers who finished fourth after clocking the same time as Campbell and silver medallist Darrel Brown.
Collins, the St Kitts & Nevis sprinter who rained on Chambers' Commonwealth Games parade last year, triumphed in 10.07secs.
Trinidad's 18-year-old Brown, Campbell - in a timely season's best - and European champion Chambers were amazingly all given the same time of 10.08 with only the photo-finish able to separate them.
World record holder Tim Montgomery of the United States could only finish fifth in 10.11 secs with partner and Olympic champion Marion Jones watching trackside at the Stade de France.
The race lived up to all the expectations that it would be the closest battle for sprint gold in what has not been a vintage year for sprinters with no man dominant.
Collins, who believed the closeness of the race demonstrated the high level of competition in the event, admitted he might have had an advantage in racing in lane one after posting one of the slower qualifying times.
"Maybe they thought, `maybe he's tired'," he said. "And to me this was an outstanding race, this is how it's supposed to be, not one man out front."
Collins reckoned the celebrations in his tiny homeland - population less than 40,000 - would have started the moment he crossed the line. He said: "Trust me, people are drunk already!"
1.Kim Collins (St Kitts-Nevis) 10.07 seconds
2.Darrel Brown (Trinidad and Tobago) 10.08
3.Darren Campbell (Britain) 10.08
4.Dwain Chambers (Britain) 10.08
5.Tim Montgomery (U.S.) 10.11
6.Bernard Williams (U.S.) 10.13
7.Deji Aliu (Nigeria) 10.21
8.Uchenna Emedolu (Nigeria) 10.22