Tyson Gay tore up the track to complete a rare sprint treble at the world championships yesterday and help the United States to the 4x100m relay crown.
Champion in the 100m and 200m, Gay became only the second man to achieve the feat at a single world championships when he teamed up with Darvis Patton, Wallace Spearmon Jr. and Leroy Dixon to match compatriot Maurice Greene's 1999 feat.
The American men ran 37.78 seconds to beat Jamaica into silver just as their women had done minutes earlier when Allyson Felix collected her second gold of the championships.
Brad Walker chipped in on a fantastic night for the States, becoming the first American to win the men's pole vault at a world championships but the night belonged to Gay.
"It really put the icing on the cake," Gay smiled. "I was extremely tired but my team mates asked me to come out and do it one more time.
"After the semi-final the coaches came to me and asked me to run the third leg to give us the lead and I knew we would have no problem.
"It feels great... I didn't come to the championships thinking about three gold medals. At the same time I think that's why I got them. I just came to have fun."
The victory was achieved despite two clumsy handovers involving Gay, who described receiving the baton from training partner Spearman Jr. as "the worst hand off we've ever had."
In the women's race, 200m champion Felix received the baton from Lauryn Williams and passed it to Mikele Barber before Torri Edwards held off Jamaica's 100m gold medallist Veronica Campbell to win by just three-hundredths of a second in 41.98 seconds.
It was the second time in two days Felix had foiled Campbell's gold rush, the American beating Campbell into silver in the 200m on Friday.
Belgium took bronze ahead of Britain for their first women's 4x100m relay medal in a world championships or Olympics.
"It's special... I can't wait to do it again tomorrow," said Felix who goes for her third gold in the 4x400m relay today.
Czech world record holder Roman Sebrle confirmed his place as the world's best all-round athlete by winning the decathlon with 8,676 points, 350 off his 2001 record.
Maurice Smith won silver with 8,644 points and Kazakh Dmitriy Karpov was third (8,586).
Walker beat France's Romain Mesnil on a countback to win the pole vault. Both men vaulted 5.86m but the American won the gold because he cleared the height at his first attempt while Mesnil took two. Danny Ecker of Germany took bronze.
Ethiopia's world record holder Meseret Defar won her first outdoor world title with victory in the 5,000 metres.
Australia's Nathan Deakes finished first in the men's 50km walk.