South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk claimed the first of what he will hope is a golden double at the Championships as he took the 400m title in assured style, leading down the home straight relatively unchallenged. Steven Gardiner of The Bahamas and Abdalelah Haroun followed for silver and bronze respectively.

The men's 800m final was a hotly contested race with Frenchman Pierre-Ambroise Bosse holding off a horde of challengers to win gold. Adam Kszczot of Poland put in a season's best performance to take silver over Kenya’s Kipyegon Bett.

The first medal of the evening was won in the women’s javelin by world record holder Barbora Spotakova with a throw of 66.76m. She beat Chinese athletes Lingwei Li and Huihui Lyu to the gold. American pole vaulter Sam Kendricks was the only athlete to clear 5.95m in the final as he took gold with Piotr Lisek of Poland second and Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie third.

In the men’s 3000m steeplechase final, a group of three broke away with two laps to go. Kenya’s Conseslus Kipruto felt he had enough in the tank to celebrate the win metres before the line despite pressure from Soufiane Elbakkali of Morocco. Evan Jager of USA just held on for bronze.

There were few surprises in the heats of the women’s 200m with Dafne Schippers leading into the semi-finals. In the qualification of the women’s shot put, Hungary’s Anita Marton was the only athlete to progress with her first throw. She did so with the largest of the competition, 18.76m.

Favourite Dalilah Muhammad of the USA cruised to victory in the final semi-final of the women’s 400m hurdles. However, the first semi was the fastest of the three as Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnová clocked 54.59 seconds.