After nine days of excellent competition at the Bird's Nest Stadium, the 2015 World Athletics Championships have come to an end. 

With all the talk before the event generating around doping in the sport, once the Athletics began many of those headlines turned into praise of the excellent performances we saw on the track and in the field. 

Led by Usain Bolt's hat-trick of victories over 'bad boy' Justin Gatlin, there were plenty of memorable moments from Beijing 2015.

Winners

  1. Bolt defeats Gatlin. The biggest talking point in athletics over the last year. Twice banned for testing positively to drugs, Gatlin had dominated the season up until Beijing, winning most races in 2015, whilst Bolt had struggled with nagging injuries. Fortuantely for the sport of athletics, the big Jamaican had saved his best for the big event, beating Gatlin by an inch in the 100, a distance in the 200 and then adding relay gold for good measure. The sport's biggest name is now up to 11 World Championship titles, with the possibility of three more in London two years from now. 

  2. Women's sprinting. Jamaican phenom Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce continued to dominate the 100 metres with another devastating performance in the final ahead of dutchwoman Dafne Schippers. Schippers then took advantage of Fraser-Pryce's absence to pick up gold in the 200 with the sixth quickest time ever. At the age of just 23, Schippers can take the sprinting world by storm if she continues to develop, whilst Dina Asher-Smith (GB) and Elaine Thompson (Jamaica) look like future stars after strong showings in Beijing. 

  3. Kenyan men. Topping the medal's table for the first time is something that will be celebrated by many in the East African country. The seven gold medals picked up by Kenyan athletes were all thanks to brilliant performances, and five of those were awarded to the men. Nicholas Bett came from nowhere to win the 400m hurdles, David Rudisha returned to form to win the 800, whilst Ezekiel Kemboi retained his 3000m steeplechase title. Asbel Kiprop put in one of the performances of the meet to come from 10th in the final lap to win the 1500m race, whilst in the javelin, Julius Yego threw an astonishing 92.72 metres to ease to gold. 

  4. Team Canada. Canadaian athletics was one of the major winners after their performances in the Bird's Nest over the last week. Derek Drouin (high jump) and Shawnacy Barber (pole vault) were the countries gold medalists, whilst their were brilliant performanes from others who picked up medals, including Andre de Grasse, Damian Warner, Melissa Bishop and Brianne Theisen-Eaton. 

  5. Almaz Ayana. On the final day of competition, Ayana stole the show with an excellent run to lead home an Ethiopian 1-2-3 in the women's 5000 metre final. Much of the talk before the race was about her teammate Genzebe Dibaba who was attempting to double-up after winning the 1500m, yet she came nowhere near after Ayana left her trailing by some distance. Classed as an upset by some, Ayana won with a time of 14 minutes 26.83 seconds to pick up her first major title. 

  6. Eaton world record. The one world record of the week came in the men's decathlon, when super man Ashton Eaton bettered his own mark to grab his third straigh world title. The American registered the best ever decathlon time in the 400 metres (45.00), whilst also setting a ridiculously fast 10.23 seconds in the 100 metres. After all ten events, Eaton was sat at the top of the overall leaderboard with 9045 points to better his own world record and continue his dominance of the multi-event competition.

  7. Wayde van Niekerk. South African 400 metre gold medalist Van Niekerk became the fourth fastest man of all time with his winning run on Thursday evening. Running 43.48 in the process of becoming world champion, van Niekerk beat LaShawn Merritt and Kirani James into second and third respectively to take his country's only gold of the meet. The sky's the limit for the South African who turns 24 next month.

  8. Zuzana Hejnova. Just quietly, Hejnova is one of athletics major stars. The Czech 400 metre-hurdler, won a second-straight world championship gold on the back of a bronze at London 2012. Hejnova won the race in a world-leading time 53.50 seconds to become the first ever athlete to defend her title in this event. There are a couple of women who may fancy ending Hejnova's dominance of the event over the next few years in Shamier Little (USA) and Kaliesse Spencer (Jamaica), yet it would be tough to bet against her if she can remain free from injury.

  9. Christian Taylor. Now a multiple world champion after equalling his gold from Daegu in 2011, Christian Taylor is amongst the most decorated American athletes of his time. His leap of 18.21 metres in Beijing was only second to Jonathan Edwards all-time leading jump (18.29) and it gave him gold by nearly half a metre from Pedro Pichardo (Cuba). 

  10. Super Saturday trio strike gold again. Finally on this list are the British gold medalists from Beijing, who happen to be the same athletes who won the same event on Super Saturday during the 2012 London Olympics. Mo Farah, Jess Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford are among the most successful British athletes of all time and have only added to their burgeoning reputations after their excellent gold-medal winning feats. Ennis-Hill was first in the heptathlon, returning from some time out after having a baby to surprise even herself in becoming world champion, finishing over 100 points of the aforementioned Theisen-Eaton. Farah completed his third major double with victory in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres, in what is starting to look like a decade of dominance in long-distance running for the Somalian-born athlete. Finally, Rutherford got on the board with his first ever World Championship title. Adding to his Commonwealth, European and Olympic long jump titles, Rutherford now holds all four major medals on offer, joining an illustrious group of British athletes to do so.