Omar McLeod ran a wonderful race to give Jamaica their first ever gold medal in the men's 110m hurdles, while Genzebe Dibaba was pushed to the silver medal position by Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon in another action-filled day on the track and field at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
McLeod was the favourite to win the race, after a stellar season, and the Jamaican did not disappoint, leading pretty much from start to finish to take gold.
The Americans, for the first time in history, failed to get any medal from the 110m hurdles, with the silver going to Orlando Ortega of Spain, while France's Dimitri Bascou took the bronze medal.
The women's 1500m was all about Kipyegon, who proved to be too strong for the rest of the field, finishing in a time of 4:08.92, well ahead of Dibaba (4:10.27) and Jenny Simpson (4:10.53) of the US, who took bronze ahead of her compatriot Shannon Rowbury.
With two laps to go, Dibaba, the world record holder, broke ahead of the rest of the field along with Laura Muir, but when it came to the actual business end of the race, it all came down to the Ethiopian and the Kenyan.
When the sprint began it was about who could keep the pace up and even break free, and Kipyegon was the one to do that, with considerably ease too, as she breezed past Dibaba to take gold.
Then came the men's 110m hurdles, and McLeod lived up to his billing, with a powerful run of 13.05s. Ortega, who began his race with a bit of a prayer, seeing those answered as the Spaniard came through in 13.17, ahead of fellow European Bascou, who took the bronze in 13.24s.
In a race that US have dominated historically – they have won 20 of the 28 previous events – the two Americans in the final – Devon Allen and Ronnie Ash – could not produce when it mattered most. Allen finished fifth, while Ash was disqualified.
In the three field events where medals were up for grabs, Christian Taylor, Sandra Perkovic and Derek Drouin took the plaudits.
Taylor won the men's triple jump with a winning leap of 17.86, 10cm more than his American compatriot Will Claye, with Bin Dong of China taking the bronze.
Perkovic retained her Olympic title in the women's discus with a massive throw of 69.21, the only legal one she made in the entire final. The 37-year-old Frenchwoman Melina Robert-Michon (66.73) and Denia Caballero (65.34) of Cuba took silver and bronze respectively.
The final field event of the day was the men's high jump and the gold medal honours went to Canada's Drouin, who cleared a height of 2.38m. Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar (2.36) took the silver medal, while bronze went the way of Ukraine's Bohdan Bondarenko (2.33).
Dafne Schippers looks nailed-on for gold in the women's 200m -- the final will be run on Wednesday – after coming through the semifinals with the best time.
