They came in their thousands for a celebration of Spanish national pride in Seville last evening - and left in awe of the sheer exuberance of African middle-distance running.

In retaining the world 1,500 metres title he won for the first time in Athens two years ago, Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj destroyed the myth that somehow, just somehow, the elite of Spanish middle-distance running as represented by Reyes Estevez, Fermin Cacho and Andres Diaz, could live up to the vast expectancy in the Olympic Stadium and turn it into the stuff of heroism.

More than that, the Moroccan did it in the most emphatic manner, front running the last 700 metres to set a championship record of three minutes 27.65 seconds. Only two men, El Guerrouj and Noureddine Morceli, have run faster, but given the setting, this was arguably the finest 1,500 metres run in history.

To achieve the win, the Moroccan management team sacrificed the chances of their other contender for the title, Adil Kaouch. But that was a price it seemed they were only too willing to pay to head off what they saw as a Spanish plot.

If there was ever a chance of the champion being deposed, it lay with Estevez, Cacho and Diaz disrupting the pattern of the race to the point where they could effectively stifle El Guerrouj's finishing pace.

To counter it, the Moroccans delegated Kaiouch to make it a truly run race from the start and with the battlelines thus defined, El Guerrouj's crown was safe. Striking out into the lead with the conviction of a man who now sensing that he was beyond recall, he invited others to throw down their challenges at the bell.

Estevez was the first to reach for glory, knocking the Kenyan Noah Ngeny uncerimoniously out of his path, as he moved close enough to spare the champion the chore of peeping at the giant television screen overlooking the stadium to sense the threat.

Typically, the Moroccan's response was to lengthen his stride as Estevez acknowledged that the chance of glory had passed him by, so Ngeny re-emerged to claim the silver medal that realistically was probably the height of his ambition on the night.

Behind them came the three Spaniards in Indian file, radiating resistance that tired limbs were unable to fulfil. They had played no small role in one of sport's more riveting occasions this year but in the end El Gourrouj had sufficient in hand to permit himself the smallest of smiles approaching the finish. And the world had again found a champion worthy of the name.

Sadly Morceli, now a mere shell of the man who once ruled this kingdom with such authority, dropped out in the middle stages of the race and had already departed into the shadow of the tunnel as the Moroccan came thundering down the finishing straight and into history.

If a heavy sense of inevitability surrounded that success, the same was equally true of the 10,000 metres final in which Haile Gebrselassie appeared at times to be teasing the opposition before breaking them irreparably on the last lap.

In a Grand Prix race, the Ethiopian would almost certainly have killed off the opposition long before the finish. Now he was made to suffer their company for longer than he would have liked as a cluster of ambitious pretenders gathered around him.

At different times the Kenyans, David Chelule and Paul Tergat, threatened and with three laps to go, Portugal's Antonio Pinto, taking his courage in his hands, embarked on the monumental task of attempting to outrun his African challengers over the last kilometre.

That, of course, was tantamount to mission impossible and in the end only Tergat survived to prevent an Ethiopian grandslam of which even the Kenyans would have been proud. In all, Ethiopia had four runners in the top six and as Gebrselaisse later remarked, that was the sweetest triumph of all.

"This was the proof that we in Ethiopia still produce some of the best long distance runners in the world," he said. "And that has to be more important than the achievements of just one man."

Apart from Tergat, a man now fated it seems to be always be second best on the track, Pinto was the only non Ethiopian in the first six.

Ludmila Formanova, following in the great tradition of Czechoslovakian 800 metres runners, provided the biggest surprise of the evening when coming with a thrilling late run to reel in the co-favourites, Maria Mutola and Svetlana Masterkova, to win the title in a time of 1:56.68.

Earlier, Formanova had looked no more than a distant threat as the American Jearl Miles-Clark attempted to upstage the two main players after a first lap of 57.63. Miles-Clark, hugging the inside lane, was still disputing the lead with Mutola and Masterkova down the finishing straight until Formaonova, almost unnoticed, moved out to lane three to deliver her challenge.

Then in moments she will recount with pleasure for the remainder of her life, she overtook Miles-Clark and Masterkova before catching Mutola in the last few strides.

"Before the race I called home and my parents told me that Mutola had said in a newspaper that there was a Czech runner in the final who could cause a surprise," said Formanova. "Now I trust she will remember my name after this."

Mutola said: "I feared Masterkova but not Formanova. And I must admit that I wasn't aware that she was anyway close to us over the last 100 metres."

Anthony Washington gave the United States a prized success in the discus final and team-mates Michael Johnson and Jerome Young hinted at another American extravaganza in the 400 metres final today. But overall, the only name which really registered with the 47,000 spectators crammed into the stadium last night was that of a remarkable champion, Hicham El Guerrouj.

Nigerian sprinter Davidson Ezinwa faces a two-year ban following a positive drugs test after the men's 100 metres semi-finals on Sunday, athletics sources said yesterday. The sources said Ezinwa had tested positive for a prohibited substance carrying a two-year ban.

Ezinwa (27), who finished seventh in the second semi-final, was the 1997 world indoor bronze medallist and finished sixth in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics final.

It has also been claimed that Somalian 1,500 metres runner Ibrahim Mohamed Aden tested positive for a banned stimulant in Sunday's semi-finals.

Aden, who finished sixth, will have his results nullified although he will not be banned. The two cases are the first positive tests at the world championships.