He beat Dwain Chambers, who ran a lifetime best 9.87 to equal Linford Christie's British record and finish second.

But even Chambers' great effort was overshadowed by the new world record holder.

Montgomery had constantly said he was capable of breaking the world record, and delivered with a brilliant performance.

He flew of out of the blocks with a reaction time of 0.104 of a second to cross the line ahead of Chambers.

With a following wind of two metres per second - exactly on the legal limit - Montgomery beat the time of 9.79 set by Maurice Greene in Athens in June 1999.

"I worked all my life for this. I can't believe it," Montgomery told the BBC after the race.

"I didn't set out to break the world record. I just wanted to beat Chambers," he added.

His mark also beats that set by Ben Johnson in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Johnson ran 9.79 to take gold, but subsequently had both the time and medal taken away after a positive steroid test.

Former record holder Greene, who withdrew from the Grand Prix Final citing fatigue, said he didn't mind having his world record broken.

"It doesn't hurt at all. I knew that I wasn't going to die with my world record," he said.

"I know I can go faster. It's going to be a lot of fun next year."

The win brought further cheer for Montgomery, as it brought him the overall Grand Prix title, which comes with a $100,000 prize.

Just 30 minutes earlier, Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj was celebrating taking the title, but the American's amazing performance took him level with El Guerrouj on 116 points.

Montgomery was awarded the prize as he has now broken a world record this season.