World Championships: Something happened to the noise level inside the Nagai Stadium last night and finally it felt like a true World Championships.

The Japanese wouldn't be the biggest athletics fans around, but they've clearly fallen for the American Tyson Gay, who delivered the second half of his sprint double with a 200 metres championship record of 19.76 seconds - prompting the sort of hysterical cheer exclusive to this part of the world.

That 19.76 looked as quick as it sounds, and Gay needed to be at his best with the impressive sprint talent Usain Bolt of Jamaica chasing him right to the line. If anything Bolt's upright and powerful stride looked superior to Gay's, but you just can't beat raw speed - and Gay's raw speed is undeniably impressive. How he manages to stay in his lane careering around the bend of the track at such speed must defy some elements of the law of gravity.

At just 21, Bolt is four years younger and like Asafa Powell in the 100 metres, is set to establish an enduring rivalry with Gay. On the night, however, Bolt had to settle for silver in 19.91, with Wallace Spearmon, the other American with the gangster-rap look, taking bronze in 20.05.

Gay thus becomes only the third athlete to pull off a men's sprint double at this level: following fellow Americans Maurice Greene, and the now disgraced Justin Gatlin: "Oh, it feels so great," he said. "Maurice Greene is one of my idols and I am proud to do the double like him . . . but Usain Bolt came out so fast and I had to work hard to catch him. I should be thankful to him to make this such a fast race. I have two golds and I want the third in relay."

If that was a memorable climax to the night, the men's long jump still stole the show, and fitting, too, in that it almost rivalled the long jump competition from the last time the championships were staged in Japan, in Tokyo 1991 - when Mike Powell's showdown with Carl Lewis produced Powell's 8.95 world record, which still stands.

What happened this time was just as dramatic, when Irving Saladino salvaged the gold medal for Panama just when it seemed certain Andrew Howe had sneaked it away to Italy.

Saladino then went into the sort of celebration the Japanese could relate too, hardly surprising given he'd won a first gold medal for Panama.

It started out along expected lines, and having won 15 of his 17 long jump competitions last year - and unbeaten again this year - Saladino soon took the lead with an 8.46-metre leap in the third round. Defending champion Dwight Phillips of the US, now coached by Lewis, was holding second with his 8.30, and Howe third with 8.20. Then all hell broke lose in the final round.

From nowhere, Olexiy Lukashevych of the Ukraine displaced Howe with an 8.25 effort, but the Italian responded with a massive 8.47 with his final attempt, a new national record and judging by his reaction, good enough to win the gold medal. His mother and coach Rene Felton, American by birth, was watching from the stands nearby and she must of reckoned it would win gold as well.

Under massive pressure, Saladino faced into his final jump with an air of slow motion, but somehow jettisoned out to 8.57 metres - thus winning back the gold medal, and improving the South American record in the process.

The sight of Saladino circling the track with a Panama flag was certainly unique.

For Australia, the self-proclaimed superpower of sport, the wait for a first gold medal of the championships also ended when Jana Pittman-Rawlinson repeated her title win of 2003 in the 400 metres hurdles.

The years since hadn't gone well, but after giving birth to a son only last December, Rawlinson has come back stronger than ever, and lead all the way to rebuff a late challenge from world record holder Yuliya Pechonkina of Russia to win in 53.31.

Pechonkina also ran a season's best of 53.50 in second, with Anna Jesien of Poland third in 53.92.