It was billed as a revenge mission for Sanya Richards, but that was tantamount to suggesting a chef could overcome the loss of a Michelin star by winning the cake competition at the village fête. The American defeated Christine Ohuruogu in the 400 metres at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, but both women know there has only been one winner this season.

When Charles van Commenee is finally installed as the head coach of UK Athletics (UKA), he might consider asking Ohuruogu and her coach, Lloyd Cowan, for their views on athletics alchemy. The Olympic champion has one entry in the top 20 times in the world this year, where Richards has seven. Last year, Ohuruogu had one and Richards nine. Yet Ohuruogu is the world and Olympic champion, while Richards has never claimed a global title. “It doesn’t mean anything in the overall scheme of things,” Ohuruogu said after running a mediocre 50.83sec. “I have got the biggest accolade in athletics.”

Her peace of mind is born of being a championship runner who knows how to peak. Ohuruogu had done little in the build-up to the Beijing Games to suggest that she would triumph but was not flustered by slow times. She explained her philosophy as she wallowed in another bloody-minded success story. “You train nine months to race three months and, out of those three months, you have three days to put your mark down,” she said. “What’s the point of training all year if you can’t get it right those three days?”

That might be the mantra for the Van Commenee era. Richards ran an awful race in Beijing and blew up in the last 50 metres, but yesterday recorded 50.41sec to become the first athlete to do the 200 metres and 400 metres double at the World Athletics Final. It was no consolation at all. Revenge was served cold and late at an event that is a cynical money-making exercise, her failings endemic of a wider problem.

Doug Logan, USA Track & Field’s chief executive, has set up a panel to review why only 10 per cent of American men and 17 per cent of women set season’s bests in Beijing. “While our overall medal count and number of gold medals won was the best of all nations, I became uneasy about the performances of our athletes on an individual basis,” Logan said. He said that the review was not a “witch-hunt”. It is worth noting that as Dave Collins departed his role as UKA performance director, he pointed out that half the British team had set season’s bests.

Two British medal-winners from Beijing failed to respond to the half-empty stadium and chilly conditions. Germaine Mason, second in the high jump last month, was only sixth, while Tasha Danvers, the 400 metres hurdles bronze medal-winner, fell at the second hurdle, but got up and finished.

A less troubled display came from Marilyn Okoro, the 800 metres runner, who ran a good 1min 58.65sec, to finish third behind the Kenyan duo, Pamela Jelimo and Janeth Jepkosgei, while Steph Twell, a 2012 hopeful who excites because her attitude matches her talent, ran a personal best to finish seventh in the 3,000 metres. Meseret Defar of Ethiopia won it, having also won the 5,000 metres on Saturday.

The opening day of the competition had been notable for Barbora Spotakova’s world record in the javelin and another defeat for Jeremy Wariner at the hands of LaShawn Merritt in the 400 metres. The star turn, however, was Asafa Powell. A dab hand at peaking at the wrong time, Powell ran 9.87sec to lead a Jamaican sweep in the 100 metres. Having failed to break Usain Bolt’s record, Powell at least backed it in the wake of Carl Lewis suggesting that only a fool would not question Bolt’s improvement.

Powell said: “I am disappointed with the words of a former athlete. Usain did better than all the other athletes before him and yet he [Lewis] does not manage to believe in him. What Usain did does not shock me, because I know how much talent he has and this is the first year he has devoted his training to the 100.”

— Kelly Sotherton finished runner-up in the heptathlon at the IAAF World Combined Events meeting in Talence, near Bordeaux in France. Sotherton, a disappointing fourth at the Olympics last month, lost out by only 34 points to Hyleas Fountain, the American who won the silver medal in Beijing. However, she pushed the Olympic champion, Natalya Dobrynska, into third place with a fine performance in the final event, the 800 metres.