Raucous crowd and sprint stars give World Athletics Championships explosive start

There was a moment on the opening night of these World Athletics Championships when the bottled up frustration of missing out on a full-fat Tokyo Olympics – with crowds and fun and unbridled joy – suddenly seemed to be unleashed. It came at the end of a thrilling women’s 10,000m, a roar that could have been heard on Mount Fuji, and a vast outpouring of appreciation and pride.

At the front of the pack, four contenders were whittled down to two before the Olympic and world champion Beatrice Chebet took off with the Italian Nadia Battocletti in pursuit. It was like watching Wile E. Coyote chasing Roadrunner.

And while Chebet held on after a final kilometre run in a staggering 2min 38sec, the sellout crowd’s eyes were also on the home favourite Ririka Hironaka, who exceeded expectations by finishing in sixth barely 30 second back.

Japanese crowds quiet? Not on this evidence. And they were soon roaring again as the giant American Ryan Crouser, whose injured elbow has left him unable to throw much this year, launched the shot put high and far in the fifth round to retain his world title.

The night ended with the American 4x400m mixed relay team winning gold at a canter. It will, you imagine, be the first of many. The British team could only finish fifth. Sunday will bring more drama. Within seven minutes the finals of the women’s and men’s 100m will be run. It promises to be fast and furious.

Oblique Seville, one of the favourites for the men’s 100m, made a start so shocking that the stadium commentator Geoff Wightman suggested that he “came out of the blocks like he was towing a caravan”. Yet he still qualified by running 9.93sec.

Seville’s Jamaican compatriot, Kishane Thompson, ran 9.95 while appearing to jog the final 30m. He is the favourite for Sunday’s final. And while the reigning Olympic and world champion Noah Lyles matched that time in his heat, he had to work a lot harder. In the women’s 100m, the Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred looked insanely comfortable as she strolled home in 10.93, the quickest time in the heats.