El Guerrouj won his third world title at 1500m

Elsewhere, Kelly Holmes' 800m medal hopes died as she trailed in sixth, behind Mozambique's Maria Mutola.

The medallists were separated by less than a fifth of a second with Austria's Stephanie Graf beaten by Mutola, as she was at the Sydney Olympics.

Moroccan El Guerrouj put behind him his defeat at Sydney last year, winning gold after a typically bold 1500m performance.

Despite their women's failure, the male American relay runners were faultless as they won both golds.

In the 4x400 they saw off a determined Caribbean challenge after Jamaica and Bahamas chased hard. Britain trailed in sixth.

The finale, the 4x100 metres sprint relay, was a comfortable win after Brazil won the baton.

But the USA can count themselves lucky after coming close to disqualification in both heats.

Jan Zelezny: World and Olympic champion

The star of the field events on the final day was the Czech star Zelezny, who produced a superb throw of over 92 metres in the highest class javelin competition in history.

Finland's Aki Parviainen had thrown a new championship record of more than 91 metres, but Zelezny put it in the shade with his next throw.

Britain's injury-hit thrower Mick Hill failed to make the final eight after pulling up when making his third throw.

The final field gold was won by South Africa, who went from no medals to two in the final hour.

Hestrie Cloete won the women's high jump title before their relay team took a surprise silver in the 4x100.

That pushed Great Britain further down to a joint 18th place in the medal table.

Not since another Canadian championships - the 1976 Montreal Olympics - have British athletes performed so badly.

Ceremony jeers

The final day also included a reminder of what many will remember this championships for.

Women's 5,000 metres winner Olga Zegorova received her gold medal to a chorus of boos.

The Russian tested positive for the drug EPO in Paris earlier in the season but was reinstated during the championships.

Ethiopia's bronze medallist Ayelech Worku failed to attend the ceremony but local organisers said her absence was an administrative error.

"The bronze medallist did not intentionally miss the presentation and it was not a protest," they said in a statement.

"According to her manager she was given an incorrect time of the ceremony by Ethiopian team officials.