It began in triumph and ended in despair for the two central figures, an exercise in valediction that offered a chance to pay tribute to the men considered by the sport to have brought it salvation, but also demonstrated that they have timed their departures from the track perfectly or, depending on perspective, fractionally too late.

After the most modest of openings to a major event – Olympic scene setter Danny Boyle was in no danger of being outdone – adopted local boy Mo Farah provided the perfect start to an athletics meeting by fending off the vigorous attentions of those from his original home continent in the 10,000 metres.

Usain Bolt, meanwhile, recovered from an abysmal start to win his first round 100 metres race, but it was to be his last ever victory on the track as he was edged out in this semi-final by Christian Coleman in a precursor of what was to come when the American youngster beat him again, only to be pipped for the title by the man considered the anti-hero, Justin Gatlin.

The pace at which things happened, with the scheduling meaning that final events were completed just before 10pm which, taking into account modern newspaper final deadlines, made it extremely difficult to do anything other than record what had just happened in the first instance each evening. From a Scottish perspective the presence of so many athletes was inspiring, but only added to the requirement to have the sort of skillset David Bowie’s ‘Man Who fell to earth’ character Thomas Newton who could absorb information from a dozen television screens simultaneously.

This was, though, a festival of all that is good about sport and if the bad and the ugly also interrupted that from time to time that is also what makes the best sport real.

With a little more time for reflection then the outstanding memories include the following:

Highs:

Whatever questions he still has to answer off the track the way Mo Farah won a 10,000 metres during which he was subjected to a succession of tackles that would have left the modern-day Premiership footballers who now routinely use this venue, writhing in pain, screaming for their mothers, was uplifting. So, too, was the response within the Olympic Stadium as they witnessed a beloved figure showing everything about what it is to be a competitor. No performance in the days that followed matched that and the absence of world record performances was intriguing given the claims by so many athletes that the vast crowds had inspired them to every great effort. However, witnessing Wayde van Niekerk’s bid to emulate the feats of both Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt, two of the greatest athletes who have ever lived, was fascinating as was gaining a better understanding of what was required over two days for Kevin Mayer to prove himself the most rounded athlete of them all in the decathlon.

Lows:

The way in which Isaac Makwala was denied his chance to win a medal in his preferred event, the 400 metres and the contradictory accounts of the norovirus symptoms he was claimed to have displayed, shed organisers in a very bad light. That he called their bluff when accepting the chance to produce an against the odds solo performance against the clock in his second event in appalling weather conditions, achieved the target, then further demonstrated his fitness by celebrating with a string of press-ups should offer a lesson that no competitor should be debarred from competing without clear and compelling medical evidence having been provided. For all that it would not have been an event of such magnitude without such huge numbers turning up, however, the real villains were the many in the crowd who displayed their ignorance in booing and jeering Justin Gatlin at every turn. The American took part in these championships legitimately and won his event accordingly.

Big issues:

They seemed to come up almost nightly, from Liz McColgan’s querying of Ethiopian anti-doping procedures after Almaz Ayana’s 10,000; to Usain Bolt being affronted by being asked questions about diminishing performance among the world’s leading sprinters; to the organisers’ response to the norovirus outbreak; to the failure of the British team as individuals to get close to their medal target; to discord (subsequently resolved to great effect) within the British 4x400 metres relay team. By its very nature athletics is at once the purest of sports and the most vulnerable to abuse, while the clashes of so many huge egos means it has endless scope for theatricality, particularly when international representation is factored in.

Biggest blunder:

It was early in the race but fact that steeplechase has long been a Kenyan speciality only made it all the more bizarre when, leading her race, Beatrice Chepkoech managed to forget to take on the water jump and consequently had to double back. She subsequently managed to catch up with the pack, but the wasted effort, not to mention mental impact of her mistake was surely the difference between a possible gold medal and her eventual fourth place finish.

Great Scot:

There was no shortage of opportunities for Scottish talent to shine this time, eight times as many of our athletes attending a World Championship as did so as recently as a decade ago and hope, if not necessarily expectations, were high for Laura Muir, in particular, Callum Hawkins, Andy Butchart, Eilidh Doyle, Lynsey Sharp and Chris O’Hare. All of them made their respective finals – or in Hawkins case got in the mix – and there were agonising near misses for Hawkins and Muir, while team captain Doyle carried herself impressively. However it was an athlete who failed to reach her individual final who seized her big opportunity when, little more than a month after becoming British champion for the first time, Zoey Clark teamed up with Doyle in the 4x400 metre relay team to claim a silver medal at her first World Championships. Just about to try her hand as a full-time athlete, having mixed training with a chemical engineering degree over the past five years, the Aberdonian now knows what is required and clearly has the capacity to take a scientific approach to getting everything right in the years to come.