Steven Gardiner made it a world and Olympic double by winning the men's 400 metres at Tokyo 2020 on a day where Hansle Parchment shocked Grant Holloway to win the 110m hurdles.
Ryan Crouser defended his shot put title from Rio 2016, while Pedro Pablo Pichardo and Katie Nageotte were also among the gold medal winners at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.
Here's a round-up of Thursday's best action in athletics.
GARDINER FOLLOWS UP DOHA TRIUMPH
Defending 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk, who suffered a horrific knee injury in 2017, was not in the final and Gardiner displaced the South African in the Tokyo humidity.
The man from the Bahamas won gold in Doha at the world championships two years ago and timed his race to perfection in the Japanese capital, storming ahead from the final bend and passing the line in a time of 43.85s.
Anthony Zambrano of Colombia was second, while 2012 champion Kirani James added Olympic bronze for Grenada.
Just a night on from Andre De Grasse becoming men's 200m champion, Canada had more reason to celebrate as Damian Warner earned an Olympic record 9,018 points to win the decathlon. Kevin Mayer of France took silver ahead of Australia's Ashley Moloney.
In the heptathlon, Nafissatou Thiam defended her gold from Rio 2016 – the Belgian accruing 6,791 points. Dutch pair Anouk Vetter and Emma Oosterwegel were second and third.
PARCHMENT BEATS HOLLOWAY IN HUGE SHOCK
Possibly the biggest shock on the track of Tokyo 2020 so far arrived in the men's 110m hurdles, where world champion and clear favourite for gold Holloway had to settle for silver.
Instead, first place was taken by Jamaica's Parchment, an outsider on paper who stormed through when Holloway's momentum appeared to stall at the last two hurdles to win in a time of 13.04 seconds.
There was further upset for Team USA in the men's 4x100m relay, where a shock sixth-placed finish in their heat meant they missed out on the final.
Massimo Stano was a surprise winner of the men's 20km walk race, a strong finish seeing him beat well-fancied Japanese duo Koki Ikeda and Toshikazu Yamanishi.
With his victory, Italy have won three athletics gold medals at the same Games for the first time.
CROUSER LIVES UP TO THE BILLING IN AN OLYMPICS QUIRK
Crouser lived up to his billing as favourite in the men's shot put and in some style to defend his title from Rio 2016.
The American equalled or bettered his previous Olympic record with each of his six throws, with the winning distance marked at 22.93m.
World Champion and countryman Joe Kovacs took silver, while New Zealand's Tom Walsh was third. Incredibly, this was the exact same podium as at Rio 2016 – the first time in Olympics athletics to have the exact same repeat of a podium.
Pichardo was equally brilliant in taking home the men's triple jump gold. His effort of 17.98m represents the second-best winning jump in Olympics history and was personal redemption for the Portuguese, who missed out in Rio five years ago.
China's Zhu Yaming earned silver with a lifetime-best jump of 17.57, with Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso in third.
Nageotte earned a nice piece of history in winning women's pole vault gold for the United States. No woman or man has ever missed with their opening two attempts and gone on to win Olympic gold.
But Nageotte cleared 4.90m, a height no one else in the competition could match. Anzhelika Sidorova – the 2019 world champion – claimed silver for the Russia Olympic Committee, with Holly Bradshaw of the United Kingdom taking bronze.
Double gold: Jamaica sweeps sprint relay finals at World Under-20 Championships
Saturday’s final day of the 2024 World Athletics Under-20 Championships was a productive one for Jamaica in the 4x100m relay as both the female and male quartets claimed gold medals.
The women combined to run a season’s best 43.39 to win gold ahead of Switzerland (44.06) and Canada (44.60).
200m bronze medallist Shanoya Douglas ran the first leg before handing off to Alliah Baker. Baker ran a solid leg before handing off to Briana Campbell who then gave the baton to individual 100m champion Alana Reid who then brought it home.
The men’s race was as exciting as they come with Deandre Daley producing a brilliant anchor leg to secure gold for Jamaica in 39.18 ahead of Great Britain (39.20) and Thailand (39.39).
Jamaica were on the back foot early after the opening leg from Jace Witter before the second and third legs from Gary Card and Nyrone Wade, respectively, meant that Daley got the baton in fourth and in striking distance of the top three.
Similar to what he did at the 2023 Carifta Games in Nassau, Daley then produced an excellent anchor leg comeback to secure the gold for Jamaica.
Elsewhere, Jamaica’s Shaiquan Dunn threw 59.79m for seventh in the final of the men’s discus. The USA’s Bryce Ruland took gold with a personal best 62.59m ahead of The Netherlands’ Jarno Van Daalen (62.22m) and Finland’s Mico Lampinen (62.20).
The USVI’s Michelle Smith narrowly missed out on a medal in the women’s 400m hurdles final, finishing fourth in 57.21. France’s Meta Tumba took gold in a national under-20 record 55.59. Poland’s Wiktoria Gadajska ran a national under-20 record 56.87 in second while South Africa’s Hannah Van Niekerk was third in a personal best 56.98.
Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 Leipzig: Visitors fightback halts unbeaten streak for Alonso's side
Bayer Leverkusen suffered their first defeat in 36 Bundesliga matches, as Leipzig came from behind to stun Xabi Alonso's side 3-2 at BayArena.
Lois Openda struck twice for Marco Rose's, who recovered from 2-0 down to make it two wins from two and move to the summit of the table.
It looked like business as usual for the reigning Bundesliga champions when they scored twice in the last seven minutes of the first half through Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo.
However, Leipzig replied deep into first-half stoppage time with Kevin Kampl reducing the deficit.
Openda then brought the visitors level in the 57th minute, before a stunning long-range strike completed the turnaround 10 minutes from time, condemning Leverkusen to their first league defeat in 15 months.
Data Debrief: Leverkusen's long streak comes to a shuddering halt
Leipzig became the first side to beat Leverkusen in a Bundesliga match since Bochum achieved the feat a staggering 462 days earlier.
The visitors have begun a Bundesliga season with two wins from two for only the second time, also doing so in 2019-20.
They are also now unbeaten in 13 league matches, their longest such streak since Rose took charge.
As for Leverkusen, their invincible streak is officially history, as is their 29-game unbeaten run on home soil.
'We really let ourselves down' - Coleman slams Everton after late Bournemouth collapse
Seamus Coleman acknowledged Everton "really let ourselves down" and must "look at ourselves in the mirror" following their spectacular late collapse against Bournemouth.
Sean Dyche's side, who were seeking their first points of the season, led 2-0 in the 87th minute at Goodison Park through goals from Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
However, the hosts were undone by three crosses in the latter stages, with Antoine Semenyo pulling a goal back and Lewis Cook levelling, before Luis Sinisterra completed a sensational turnaround in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
Boos rung around Goodison Park as the Toffees remained pointless and rooted to the foot of the Premier League table, and Coleman echoed the supporters' frustrations.
"We really let ourselves down in front of our fans," the skipper said. "We cannot take our foot off the gas at this level. Unfortunately, we did that.
"We cannot be conceding the goals that we did. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror."
Meanwhile, Dyche bemoaned the lack of responsibility amongst his players, as they became the first side in Premier League history to lose a game after leading by two or more goals in the 87th minute.
"We did so much right until they scored their first goal," the Everton head coach said. "The game should have been out of sight. We conceded one and then threw it away. I can't put my finger on it right now.
"They kept raining it forward and got their reward in the end. They were playing it forward and crossing it into the box, and we didn't deal with it. Simple stuff, but we threw it away. It is the third game we have thrown away this season.
"Everyone was looking at someone else to deal with things and that is when there is trouble. You could see the body language change. You have to see games through, and we have enough experience to do that, but today we didn't."
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola added: "It was the worst game we played this season. Everton deserved to win today, but the players kept pushing.
"I always have hope because this team has spirit. We have done it before and had some good comebacks. The spark of the first goal made us believe we could do it again."
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