Dina Asher-Smith powered her way into the history books - but there was fury that almost nobody was there to see it.
The triple European champion lived up to her star billing by becoming the first British woman to win a global medal in the 100 metres for 59 years.
But while her silver medal run was broadcast live to an armchair audience on BBC2, the almost total absence of fans at the Khalifa Stadium left track legends raging.
Olympic gold medalist Denise Lewis blasted: “Our governing body has let our athletes down, massively.”
Her anger contrasted with the joy of Asher-Smith, 23, in taking second place behind ‘supermum’ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who won her fourth world title at the age of 32 in a time of 10.71 seconds..
The Kent star, champion over the distance across the Diamond League season, broke her own British record to finish ahead of Marie-Josee Ta Lou, with Olympic champion Elaine Thompson out of the medals in fourth.
Britain had not had a female world sprint medalist since Kathy Smallwood-Cook’s 200m bronze in 1983 before Asher-Smith stopped the clock on 10.83secs.
In the 100m you had to go back to the shock Olympic silver won by Yorkshire teenager Dorothy Hyman in Rome in 1960.
Such an achievement deserved far greater than row upon row of empty seats in a 40,000-seater stadium at a championships pushed into October by the extreme Arabian heat.
It meant Asher-Smith spent much of her lap of honour looking for fans to acclaim her achievement.
“I walked into the stadium tonight and looked around and said "is this the World Championships?” Lewis told the BBC.
“We waited until October to have stands like this - empty. It's shocking. I didn't expect it to be this bad.
“We want to see people. The athletes deserve people, an energy and an atmosphere to thrive on.”
BBC commentator Steve Cram agreed: “This must be the least amount of people I've ever seen at a major championship. That’s the sad thing for me.”
Asher-Smith has no time to contemplate such matters as she is back on the start line at tea time today to begin qualifying for the 200m.
There is the potential for further 200m spoils in the men’s event where Adam Gemili qualified fastest for the semi-finals in 20.06secs.
Noah Lyles remains hot favourite but Christian Coleman, newly crowned champion over 100m, has withdrawn.
