Jeremy Wariner was thrilled, Sally McLellan ecstatic and the Japan women’s 4 x 400 metres relay team could barely contain themselves, but the most satisfied soul in the Nagai Stadium on Saturday was a short, elderly man in a dark suit. The World Championships come to this city in August and Kiyoshi Moriishi has prepared a special contribution.

Moriishi is head of research and development for the Japanese company that claims to have designed the fastest track the world has seen, one to light up the sprints in the manner of the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Out of the laboratory and tested for the first time in competition, the evidence was compelling.

In the only IAAF grand prix meeting here between the laying of the track and the World Championships, Wariner, the Olympic and world 400 metres champion from the United States, ran 44.02sec, the quickest he has run this early in a season. “I love the track,” Wariner said. “It was real fast. I cannot wait to come back for the World Championships and try to get the world record.”

McLellan broke the Australian 100 metres hurdles record, recording 12.71, a run that was the equivalent of two metres quicker than her previous best and achieved with no wind assistance. “I am in shock, I don’t know how I did it,” she said. She should have asked Moriishi.

From the stadium offices overlooking the nine-lane track, Moriishi explained that by using an unprecedented double layer – soft underneath, unyielding on top – the Oku En-Tout-Cas Ltd design would assist sprinters to go faster while sparing distance runners the injuries of which they complain when forced on to hard circuits.

Furthermore, the track comes complete with a so-called “Feel Cool” coating to reduce surface temperature. “For example, our tests show that it reduces 60 degrees surface temperature to 46,” Moriishi said. “So the track is not only fast, it prevents injury and heat exhaustion.”

Equally importantly, the track has been certified by the IAAF as being within its regulations. In 1991, when the World Championships were previously held in Japan, it was revealed after a men’s 100 metres final in which the first two home beat the world record – and four more went under ten seconds – that the track did not conform to IAAF specifications. On a hard track especially helpful to sprinters, Carl Lewis ran 9.86 and Leroy Burrell, his United States teammate, 9.88, spearheading the greatest 100 metres seen to that day. Great race, flattering times. The IAAF knew before the championships that Tokyo had flouted the specifications, but the truth was not leaked until 17 months later.

Now, after Lewis, and Mike Powell’s long jump world record on a speed-aided runway in 1991, and the 100 and 200 metres world records set by Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson in Atlanta, all eyes will be on Asafa Powell, Liu Xiang and Wariner.

Offering further evidence of the track’s behaviour, Liu, the Olympic champion and world record-holder for the 110 metres hurdles, recorded his fastest opening time of the season here, 13.14. Powell did not compete, but as the joint 100 metres world record-holder, he will relish the coming opportunity.

Wariner drew attention to how the grain of the track runs from side to side, rather than in the direction of running, benefiting grip. “It is a minor thing, but, psychologically, it looks like you are running on a scrub board,” Clyde Hart, Wariner’s coach, said. “But the big thing that makes the track fast, other than the surface, is the radius.

“You have only got about 85 metres on the straight, so the curves are not tight, which is easier to run. The surface is excellent and they have textured it to the advantage of the runner.”

Such is the excellence of its design, Oku says, it is patenting it, having spent about £1 million on laying the new track. Maurice Greene, the former 100 metres world record-holder, used to say that there was no such thing as fast tracks, only fast athletes. Try telling that to the short, elderly man in the dark suit.