Allyson Felix crosses the line to become the only women to defend the IAAF World Championship 200m title twice (© Getty Images)
One, two, three. Take that!
Allyson Felix made history as the first woman to land three successive individual IAAF World Championship track titles with an emphatic victory inside a chilly Berlin Olympic Stadium.
The US athlete cantered to a golden hat-trick of world 200m titles and rarely looked troubled, cruising to victory in 22.02.
Behind the dazzling Felix, Jamaica's Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown held on for a brave silver in 22.35 with Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas snatching the bronze medal in 22.41 from the American Muna Lee (22.48) in a close battle.
The performance by Felix might not have quite matched the jaw-dropping brilliance of Usain Bolt over the same distance yesterday but in many ways Felix is proving just as dominant, at least at World Championships.
She is aged just 23 yet has already amassed five world titles - besides her three 200m title she also bagged 4x100m and 4x400m gold at the 2007 edition of the World Championships in Osaka.
So which was the most memorable of her three World 200m titles?
"They are different but this one happened in a stadium with a lot of history, so this is something special for me," said Felix.
The versatile sprinter, who is also a world-class 100m and 400m athlete, has spent much of the season fine-tuning her preparations over those distances, although her world leading 21.88 clocking in Stockholm in her final pre-Berlin 200m outing suggested she was the gold medal favourite.
Her main rival, the Olympic champion, Campbell-Brown by contrast had endured a fractured season hampered by a number of injury niggles and she entered the final with heavy strapping on both legs.
As the athletes finally took to their blocks, some 45 minutes after the scheduled start time following an earlier torrential downpour, the temperature had also plummeted to a chilly 17c.
Campbell-Brown needed every advantage in her favour if she was to seriously threaten Felix and the Jamaican was at least given lane five, one inside Felix.
And it was Campbell-Brown who made a blistering start and closed down some of the stagger on her American rival during the first quarter of the race. The Jamaican duo Simone Facey and Anniesha McLaughlin also ran a solid bend but by the home stretch there was nothing to separate the 'big two.'
Behind Lee had started to make her move and advanced into the bronze medal position from lane three with Ferguson-McKenzie fourth.
With 50m to go, however, Campbell-Brown's resistance was broken as Felix opened up a slight lead and then bossed the remainder of the race.
The Los Angeles-born athlete's long, flowing stride ate up the ground and with every step she extended her advantage. It looked supremely effortless.
Campbell-Brown tied up badly over the final 30m but held on for a silver to match her performance from the last World Championships in Osaka two years ago.
Meanwhile, a terrific late charge by Ferguson-McKenzie, training partner to Campbell-Brown, gave the 2001 World 200m champion a bronze medal at the age of 33.
Lee, who had looked the likely minor medallist for the much of the home straight had to settle for a frustrating fourth - her same finishing position as at last year's Beijing Olympic Games.
Locked in their own private battle for fifth - McLaughlin edged Facey with 22.62 to 22.80, respectively. Great Britain's Emily Freeman took seventh in 22.98 with Eleni Artymata making history as the first Cypriot women to reach a World Championship final in eighth (23.05).
But this race was all about Felix, again. What price a four-timer in Daegu, South Korea in 2011?
Steve Landells for the IAAF
