Germany's Leo Neugebauer stepped up from his Paris Olympic silver to take the world championship decathlon gold on Sunday, as a huge javelin personal best set him up for a decisive 1,500 metres that he paced perfectly.
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The German's previous best javelin was 58.99 metres, but he extended that to a scarcely believable 64.34 to leapfrog long-time leader Kyle Garland.
Puerto Rico's Ayden Owens-Delermetook silver and American Garland the bronze.
NEUGEBAUER RECOVERS FROM POOR HURDLES
Neugebauer had a poor start to the day in the hurdles but gained considerable ground with the discus, where his decathlon championship record throw of 56.15 metres was almost four metres better than anyone else in the field and eight metres ahead of Garland.
He followed up with a 5.10 metre pole vault, which Owens-Delerme matched for a personal best, and with Garland clearing only 4.80, things closed up.
Neugebauer then had a dream javelin, throwing a personal best 61.00 metres and improving it to 64.34 to move to the top of the standings by a slender 15 points from Garland.
However, with a 1,500m time far superior to the American's he just needed to avoid disaster in the final event to take the gold.
On a sodden track, Owens-Delerme did all he could with a run of four minutes 17.91 seconds but Neugebauer showed terrific patience to clock a personal best 4:31.89 which was enough for gold.
Neugebauer ended with 8,804 points to the 8,784 of Owens-Deleme. Garland held on for third on 8,703.
"It still sounds unbelievable, the oxygen is not back in my brain yet from the run but I feel fantastic," Neugebauer said.
"Day one was really tough for everybody. Many people fell out, which is really tough in the decathlon. The important thing is just to keep going.
"I was just in a good mood today. I felt great, so I just kept going. I surprised myself a little bit but I had a lot of fun."
OWENS-DELERME HONOURED TO MEDAL FOR PUERTO RICO
Owens-Delerme said he was honoured to join (hurdlers) Janvier Culson and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn as the third world championship medallist from Puerto Rico.
"This is the best day two I have ever had in decathlon," he said. "I am usually a day one guy and kind of fall apart on day two. I wanted to change the narrative.
"I have been working hard for 15 years to finally get a (global) medal in the sport. It's pretty special. This is redemption for me after Paris (where he finished ninth).
Garland was also delighted with his bronze, despite leading for so long.
"I had amazing energy over these 48 hours," he said.
"After all the adversity I have faced, to be able to wear this bronze medal around my neck is fulfilling. The way I handled the long jump with two fouls and then put up a big mark was a big moment.
"To be on the podium for USA for the first time since Ashton Eaton back in 2016 (at the Rio Olympics). I feel fantastic to put USA back on the map and on the world stage."
The day had begun with Norway's gold medal favourite Sander Skotheim suffering more heartbreak when he was disqualified from his 110 metres hurdles heat.
Skotheim, who went out of the Olympics last year after three no-heights in the pole vault, was in second place overnight, but with his strong second day had been expected to push on for the title.
He caught a hurdle, however, and pushed over the next to depart the competition.