Athletics/ World Championship:After a weird and not so wonderful night in Osaka it was hard to know what to make of day five of the World Championships.

It wasn't just the crowds in the Nagai Stadium were well down on what you'd expect, and the atmosphere therefore muted, but also the fact the two main finals - the men's 1,500 metres and the women's 400 metres - again raised question marks over where the sport is at.

The Americans had dubbed the 1,500 metres final the "99-year race" - referring to the number of years they've been waiting to win a gold medal in the event, the long delay stretching back to Mel Sheppard's Olympic success in London in 1908. Well they got their gold medal alright, albeit in the more unexpected form of Bernard Lagat, as their main hope and fastest in the world this year Alan Webb faded to a disappointing eighth.

Lagat won the silver medal for Kenya behind Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj at the Athens Olympics, but since then has been sitting out major competitions as he awaited his transfer of allegiance to the US. That transfer became valid a day before these championships began, and the 32-year-old duly delivered the title to his adopted nation with a brilliantly-timed sprint in a typically tactical race, his 3:34.77 winning time almost a full eight seconds outside his best.

That was enough to beat defending champion Rashid Ramzi, the former Moroccan now running for Bahrain, who still ran extremely well to win the silver medal in 3:35.00 - particularly given his suspiciously light racing schedule in the two years since winning the 2005 title. Razmi hadn't raced this season prior to Osaka, and for a world-class 1,500 metres runner that hardly adds up.

Lagat doesn't wholly escape suspicion either, arising from complications surrounding an EPO test just prior to the 2003 World Championships in Paris. He was withdrawn from the 1,500 metres on the eve of those championships, although subsequently cleared any allegations of wrongdoing. Still it's not the kind of thing the IAAF would have wanted hanging over the winner of their blue ribbon event.

There is also a question mark hanging over Christine Ohuruogu, Britain's surprise winner of the women's 400 metres. She'd been serving a year-long ban for missing three successive drugs tests, which expired on August 5th, and even more embarrassingly remains banned for life by the British Olympic Committee, which rules her our of the Beijing Games next year.

Ohuruogu was a revelation, her powerful frame producing a storming finish to win gold in a personal best of 49.61 seconds. Britain also won the silver medal in the far more diminutive Nicola Saunders, who also finished impressively in 49.65 - and together they ran down the Jamaican Novlene Williams, who ended up third in 49.66 - in a race notable for the fact that the fastest in the world this year, Sanya Richards, failed to make the American team, although she remains a gold medal hope over 200 metres.

After winning the Commonwealth Games, Ohuruogoshe, was banned for missing three successive out-of-competition drugs tests, one in October 2005 and two in June 2006. According to IAAF and British Olympic Association rules, she received a one-year ban for missing these tests - with the British Olympic Association also banning her from competing at future Olympics. She subsequently appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the original decision was upheld. In the meantime she has appealed against her Olympic ban, and also hinted she will leave Britain and compete in the Olympics for her parents homeland of Nigeria if her appeal is unsuccessful.

"All this will probably sink in later," said Ohuruogu last night, showing no signs of the stressful times she's often talked about in recent weeks, and having raced only twice in the 23 days since her ban was lifted prior to Osaka.

Among the other titles decided was Michelle Perry of the US winning the women's 100 metres hurdles in a best of 12.46, and Donald Thomas of the Bahamas winning the men's high jump, equalling his best of 2.35 to surprise the Russian favourite Yarsolav Rybakov and the Olympic champion Stefan Holm of Sweden, who could only manage fourth.

Today's schedule:

(All times Irish; Osaka eight hours ahead)

11:30: Women: Hammer Throw: Final (Eileen O'Keeffe).

11:35: Men: Pole Vault: Qualification.

11:40: Men: 800m: First Round (David Campbell).

12:25: Women: 400m Hurdles: Final.

12:40: Men: Long Jump: Final.

12:45: Men: 5000m: First Round (Alistair Cragg).

13:30: Men: 110m Hurdles: Semi-Final.

14:00: Women: 200m: Semi-Final.

14:20: Men: 200m: Final.