Marion Jones came to Seville hoping to get four gold medals and went home with one; Maurice Greene surpassed his own ambitions and got three; but Michael Johnson outperformed them all by taking his total to nine gold World Championship medals in his career and throwing in a world record for good measure.

Johnson now overtakes Carl Lewis (eight) with the most World Championship golds, a tally which began with a victory over 200 metres in Tokyo eight years ago and was completed with his anchor relay leg for the US last night. In addition, he is now the first man in history to hold world records at the standard championship distances of 200 and 400 metres (although in the 1960s Tommie Smith, also of the US, held both records at 220 and 440 yards). Johnson is also part of the US team which holds the current world 4x400 metres relay record.

His world record here of 43.18 seconds was the 19th sub-44 second time for the 31-year-old - the rest of the runners to have gone under this time (six in total) have only done so a combined total of 13 times. So how much faster can he go? According to his coach, Clyde Hart, the torn quadriceps muscle suffered in his 1997 head-to-head with Donovan Bailey is still only "60 per cent" as strong as the other. If he gets that right, the 43-second barrier will definitely drop.

How the race was won: Time: 43.18 seconds (world record). Average speed: 33.35 km/hr. The splits: 0-100 metres - 10.90 seconds. 100-200 metres - 10.10 seconds. 200-300 metres - 10.90 seconds. 300-400 metres - 11.28 seconds.