Dina Asher-Smith wiped away tears after equalling her 100 metres British record - yet missing out on a medal.
Three years after stopping the clock on 10.83 seconds to win silver at the last World Championships, Britain’s fastest woman ran the same time and finished fourth.
Once again Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was ahead of her, at 35 breaking Justin Gatlin's record as the oldest world champion in an individual track event.
She became the first runner to win five world titles in an individual event and her time of 10.67secs, incredibly, was the fastest of her seven global wins dating back to 2008.
The jet-heeled mum led a Jamaican 1-2-3 ahead of Shericka Jackson (10.73) and Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.81).
“I hope it shows that age doesn’t change anything,” beamed Fraser-Pryce, whose five fastest times have come since going through 13 hours of labour to give birth to her son in 2017.
“You can be in your 20s, you can be in your 30s and you can still accomplish greatness. You just have to compete and trust yourself, your instinct and your gut.”
Asher-Smith said Fraser-Pryce was “probably” the greatest of all time, a cautious assessment given her CV. And in no sense is there any sign of her slowing up now.
“I am always hungry to do more,” warned the 13-time global champion. “Because I believe there is more to be done. I definitely believe I can run faster and I am not going to stop until I do.”
Asher-Smith was in the podium places until 30m from the line when engulfed by a Jamaican wave.
The fact she was 0.02secs from a medal only made it harder to bear in what has been a tough year with the passing of her grandmother.
She said: “The calibre of the final was amazing but I came here to be on the podium. I’m annoyed to finish fourth and I’m probably going to cry a bit.
“But watching Shelly-Ann gives me [fresh] goals. People are like ‘when are you going to retire?’ I’m like, ‘who knows, now!
“She was phenomenal. It’s one thing to do 10.67 in a one-off. To do it in a championships on the back of two other races is amazing.”
Fourth place was as good as it got for Britain, with national champion Daryll Neita failing to even make the final.
Josh Zeller, on his senior GB debut, took an improbable fifth spot in an incident-packed men’s 110m hurdles.
Zeller saw Olympic champion Hansie Parchent injured in the warm-up, then Shane Brathwaite and NFL-bound Devon Allen DQd for false starts.
Under current sprint rules an athlete is disqualified for false starting if they start within 0.1 seconds after the gun has fired. Allen, who has signed for the Philadelphia Eagles, had a reaction time of 0.099secs.
It was not visible to the naked eye and prompted an angry backlash, particularly as Allen is the home town University of Oregon hero.
Track legend Michael Johnson tweeted: "To be clear unfortunately Devon Allen was robbed because of an antiquated World Athletics rule, not by the officials.
"Officials can’t just decide in the moment to disregard a rule violation even if it’s a stupid and unfair rule. WA [World Athletics] need to change the rule!"
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