Halfway between a cheer and a jeer is an uncomfortable groan - the sort of awkward sound British people make when they would really rather just change the subject.

• UPDATED

Olympic champion Betty Cuthbert has died at the age of 79.

And so the "Golden Girl", the fastest female sprinter the world had ever seen, has gone to her God.

American Tori Bowie snatched the women's 100 metres from Marie-Josee Ta Lou on the line to win gold at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday.

Jess Trengove has delivered the best performance by an Australian woman marathon runner at a world championships, finishing ninth in London.

IAAF president Coe admits Gatlin's win at the World Athletics Championships was not ideal.

It should never have come to this. The perfect athlete has left his imperfect sport, in the most imperfect of ways to the least perfect athlete.

Justin Gatlin said it was sad that fans booed his victory in the world 100 metres final on Saturday, saying he had "done my time" for his doping offences - and Usain Bolt, the man he beat into third place, agreed with him.

Australia's world silver medallist Fabrice Lapierre could not find the rogue jump he needed in London.

Ella Nelson was a breath from the 200m final in Rio. Australia's rising star of the Rio Olympics has struggled since but insists you only need one good race a year and she is ready to her run hers.

Mo Farah doesn't race, He teases. For a period the field thought they had a chance of beating him. Yet again they were fooled. Farah, the greatest distance runner ever, leaves his sport undefeated at 10,000m.

Fabrice Lapierre Australia's reigning world silver medallist has squeezed luckily into final of the long jump as the last qualifier despite not hitting any of his jumps cleanly.

Usain Bolt did it ugly but he did it. Bolt clumsily but effectively completed his first step towards the golden exit from the sport when he won his heat at the world championships.

Steve Solomon watched in awe as Wayde Van Niekerk broke the world record when he won Olympic gold in Rio, now he is ready to have the South African push him to new and bigger things.

Dual Olympian Zoe Buckman is raring to go ahead of the athletics world championships in London this weekend.

Kurtis Marschall thought it was fluke when he jumped a height big enough to get him to the Rio Olympics. Now he is hitting that fluky height with regularity and is a dark horse at these world championships.

South African star Van Niekerk aims to become the new face of athletics after retirement of Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt.

Andre de Grasse, the triple Olympic sprint medallist, has pulled out of the world athletics championships in London with injury, boosting Usain Bolt's chances of a golden swansong.

The youngest members of Australia's athletics team have been in lockstep since becoming best friends as 11-year-olds. This week they are both representing Australia at the World Athletics Championships in London.