It’s Greene for gold as England proves inspiration with surprise silver on memorable evening

The 25-year-old ran a superbly-paced race to overhaul Javier Culson in the final few strides and add the world title to his European and Commonwealth crowns.

The Welshman’s victory crowned a memorable evening for the British team, coming minutes after Hannah England produced a wonderful sprint finish to win a surprise silver in the 1,500m.

Greene came round the final bend in third but was the strongest in the home straight, picking off South African LJ van Zyl and then Culson as the Puerto Rican was tieing up to win in 48.26 seconds, spreading his arms wide in celebration as he crossed the line.

Culson took the silver in 48.44secs with Van Zyl getting bronze in 48.80secs.

The former Swansea youth-team footballer, who held his nerve after two faulty starts, said: “We’ve been waiting for this gold all week. I saw Hannah England’s performance, saw her running round with the flag and I was like ‘I’m going to get a piece of that action’.

“I was desperate to come away with the gold.

“If I’d had a bad season this year it wouldn’t have set me up very well for next year.

“It’s a lot easier during the winter months to train when you have a gold medal on the mantelpiece.

“Now I’ve got three from three from the last championships and I want to complete the set at the Olympics next year.

“I’ve had a lot of injures in 2006, ’07 and ’08 and was really struggling to make the squads and now look at me – I’ve totally changed that round. That stood me in good stead for where I am now.

“I’ve worked very hard to get here and that’s why I can deal with the expectations, because I remember being bottom of the pile.”

England’s tears at missing out on selection for the last World Championships in Berlin two years ago were forgotten as she, too, produced a storming finish to take silver in the 1,500m.

The Oxford athlete looked to have dropped out of contention with 200m to go, but showed plenty of strength down the home straight to finish 0.28secs behind American winner Jennifer Barringer-Simpson.

The 24-year-old Kelly Holmes protege, who came through the double Olympic champion’s mentoring scheme ‘On Camp with Kelly’, said: “I was so calm in the last 200m. It was only coming down the home straight I realised the others were tieing up, apart from Jenny of course. I was like ‘what’s going on?’

“I knew I had a strong last 100m. I was hoping I’d get a gap on the inside but ended up going really wide.

“It was such a weight off my shoulders making the final because I knew I was capable of that. But honestly I never thought I was capable of this.

“I should say thank you to Kelly. She set her alarm for 2.30 in the morning for the first round and she’s been watching me all the way through.”

Cuba-born Yamile Aldama missed out on crowning her British debut with a medal as she finished fifth in the triple jump.

The 39-year-old, who previously competed for Sudan and only received clearance to switch her allegiance to Britain last month, produced a best leap of 14.50m in the first round.

Earlier, Mo Farah insisted he had recovered well from the 10,000m final as he got his bid for 5,000m gold off to a successful start.

The 28-year-old finished second to Imane Merga in his heat, easing down and sharing a joke with the Ethiopian as they crossed the line.

Jenny Meadows cruised into the semi-finals of the 800m, where she will be joined by team-mates Marilyn Okoro, Emma Jackson and Caster Semenya, the defending champion whose dominant victory two years ago was overshadowed by a gender row.

Greg Rutherford’s hopes of making the long jump final were scuppered by a hamstring injury suffered on his second-round effort.

Middlesbrough’s Chris Tomlinson needed a third-round jump of 8.02m to squeeze into the final on countback and later revealed he was struggling for fitness, hampered by a knee complaint.