Michael Johnson stood alone as the finest world championship competitor of them all in Seville last night after anchoring the American team to a handsome success in the 4x400 metres relay.

It was his ninth world championship gold medal, one more than that of another American legend, Carl Lewis. And if the winning time of two minutes 56.45 seconds was more than two seconds outside the world record set by the United States last season, the occasion was still memorable.

The stadium reverberated to the acclaim of a true champion as Johnson, in that unique style which has redefined the boundaries of 400 metres running, hurtled around the track in what was, essentially, a glorious lap of honour. The challenge of those who sought the Americans' title had long since been broken by the time the Texan took the baton. But it scarcely spoiled the occasion as he hit his stride instantly and floating over the terrain, put another eight metres between himself and his closest pursuer, Piotr Haczek of Poland.

His split was timed at 43.50 seconds, .32 of a second slower than his world record set here on Thursday but still impressive enough to fit the image of an icon. Maurice Greene, another superb athlete, ended the week as he had begun it, by thundering down the straight to secure a second American success in the 4 x 100 metres relay.

Greene, the first to complete the sprint double in these championships, ran a superb last leg in a race which shattered no fewer than five records.

Britain eyeing the title with increasing ambition after two good opening runs by Jason Gardner and Darren Campbell, were still highly competitive as Marlon Devonish handed the baton to Dwain Chambers on the last changeover.

This time the transfer was smooth to the point of being textbook and Greene still had it all to do on the finishing stretch. Unperturbed, however, he was gone in a blur of speed to open up a lead of a couple of metres at the line.

The winning time of 37.59 seconds, the second fastest in history, was bettered only by the US team at Gothenburg six years ago and the quality of the race was illustrated further in the fact that behind them, Britain, Nigeria and Brazil all set continental records.

The fluency of the American performance in that instance, contrasted starkly with the ineptitude which cost them their chance of victory in the women's event. With Pauline Davis Thompson and Debbie Ferguson running the last two legs for the Bahamas, the American women were always going to have to perform to win. But a dreadful first change between Cheryl Taplin and Nanceen Perry destroyed their ambition. In the event, they failed to finish in the first three as the Bahamas showed the way home to France and Jamaica in a time of 41.92 seconds. As ever, the relays provided a fitting finale to the championships after triumphs of contrasting quality for two of those who always fitted the description of potential champions, Svetlana Masterkova and Wilson Kipketer.

Masterkova, upstaged so dramatically in the women's 800 metres final, was precision itself when she applied herself to the task of winning the 1500 metres. Always controlling the race, she timed her finishing run with care to reel in the American Regina Jacobs in a time of three minutes 59.53 seconds. Expectations that Kipketer, out of range of all opposition this season, had merely to turn up to win the men's 800 metres, looked vastly misplaced when Hezekiel Sepeng of South Africa bolted into the lead with 300 metres to go. With Kipketer ranging up behind him, it looked no more than a theatrical gesture of resistance at the time but Sepeng sustained the charge so long that it was literally only in the last few strides that the Dane got up to win in one minute 43.30 seconds.

A new name emerged to cause a major revision of the women's marathon rankings after Song-Ok Jong of North Korea had surprised all the established runners to claim her first major title in the sweltering early morning heat.

In terms of some of the figures returned over the last couple of years, the time of two hours 26 minutes 59 seconds was scarcely startling. And yet given the conditions, it represented some marvellous running.

The applause which greeted the tiny Korean at the end of her journey was polite rather than raucous. And it certainly didn't compare with the reception which awaited the Spanish hero, Abel Anton as he came into his kingdom at the end of the men's marathon on Saturday.

Then, the stadium erupted in a thunderous ovation as Anton delivered the win the Spanish nation expected. If the Spaniards had devised the script the themselves, it couldn't have provided a more apt finish to a memorable 10 days here in Seville.