They used to call Allyson Felix “Chicken legs” in high school, which was perhaps portentous given that one Jamaican star of these Olympics says he eats chicken nuggets for breakfast. So following in the fleet footsteps of Usain Bolt, it was Veronica Campbell-Brown who continued her country's dominance of the sprint events as Felix fell to earth.

Felix won three gold medals at last year's World Championships in Osaka, Japan, but wanted to upgrade the 200metres silver from the last Olympics. Instead, she was blown away by a Jamaican whirlwind.

Campbell-Brown has gone double-barrelled since she won at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and gave Felix both barrels as she tore past her in a personal best of 21.74sec. It was the same one-two as 2004, with Kerron Stewart bagging yet another medal for Jamaica's sprint team in third. For Felix it was a chastening experience after being widely tipped for the title.

Another United States star was also soundly beaten. Jeremy Wariner has been making bold predictions about claiming Michael Johnson's 400metres world record, but he failed even to win the race, LaShawn Merritt destroying him in 43.75. Wariner and David Neville completed an American sweep to go some way to rectifying a dismal Olympics on the track for the US. “This is my domain,” Merritt said. Nobody argued.

Back to reality for golden generation

Olympic heroes will discover if the last 17 days has been a life-changing experience or a glorious but brief interlude

• Team GB to be rewarded with gold for gold

• Hard work starts now as British sailors look towards London 2012

• Public support gained from success in Beijing needs to last four years

BACKGROUND

• How the Brits became world beaters

• London double-decker arrives in Beijing

• Olympics proves capacity for greatness

• New dawn for British sport as Olympic sun sets

Multimedia

• Simon Barnes in Beijing

• Bring back the tug-of-war

• Top 100 Olympic athletes of all time

Related Links

• Ohuruogu happy to stay in her 'bubble'

• Danvers claims an unlikely bronze

• Bolt leaves Beijing spellbound

Martyn Rooney had cause to be disappointed with his time of 45.12, which was enough for only sixth, but at least the Briton made the final.

Lisa Dobriskey is transforming herself from dark horse to serious medal contender after qualifying for tomorrow's 1,500 metres final in a personal best of 4min 3.22sec, but Michael Rimmer crashed out of the 800metres semi-finals in pouring rain. The unluckiest Briton of the night was Goldie Sayers. She broke the British javelin record with an opening effort of 65.75metres but came fourth.

And so to the the 110metres hurdles. It was supposed to be a national celebration, but Liu Xiang's departure had wrecked the party plans. Instead, Dayron Robles, of Cuba, got the gold and then received his medal in an almost empty stadium as China suddenly became indifferent to its former favourite event.