Was there ever any doubt that Brittney Reese would win an unprecedented third gold medal in the women s Long Jump at the IAAF World Championships?

Just like at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu two years ago, the longest race on the track boiled down to a last-lap battle between Great Britain s Mo Farah and Ethiopia s Ibrahim Jeilan, but this time the roles were reversed.

The cream rose to the top in the men s Hammer Throw qualifying, with the four men to have thrown farther than 80 metres in 2013 and the next two closest all sealing places in Monday night s final.

"Defending is hard... If you're running for the first time, no one knows who you are but going to defend, everybody is going to look at you."

Ashton Eaton needed only one event to kick himself back into the groove following a greatly disappointing High Jump performance and he did it in style in the 400m.

The Decathlon competition of the 14th IAAF World Championships in Moscow started in good conditions and with some promising results.

Justin Gatlin and Mike Rodgers produced the first sub-10 times on Russian soil, and Usain Bolt had what could best be described as a stroll to victory in the seventh and last heat.

The preliminary round of the men s 100m is not where you would expect to find a man who has run 9.91, or finished fourth and fifth in the past two World Championships finals.

Brittney Reese has won five successive global Long Jump titles, but for a moment here in Moscow it looked as though the defending champion wouldn t make it out of qualifying.

With half of the cavernous Luzhniki Stadium bathed in sunshine and the other half cast with a huge shadow from the large stands, it was the women in group A of the Discus throwers who had the honour of raising the curtain on the 14th IAAF World Champio...