TRACK LEGEND ALLYSON Felix came out of retirement on Saturday night to help the US women’s 4x400m relay team qualify for the final.

Felix signed off on a glittering career last week, but put her plans for a well-earned break on hold and answered the call to run the second leg of Saturday’s heats.

The US team won their heat in 3:23.38 and will be joined in the final by Britain, Jamaica, Belgium, Canada, Italy, France and Switzerland.

Irrespective of whether she runs again in Sunday’s final, Felix stands to win her 20th world medal. Her overall world tally currently stands at 19 medals (13 gold, three silver, three bronze), including four individual golds.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir and Pedro Pichardo of Portugal added world titles to their respective Olympic crowns, but there was injury heartbreak for Canada’s Damian Warner in the decathlon.

Two other gold medallists from last year’s Tokyo Games had a mixed bag, Indian Neeraj Chopra having to content himself with silver in the men’s javelin, but Dutch runner Sifan Hassan leaving Eugene medal-less after finishing sixth in the women’s 5,000m.

The 4x100m relays saw the US women beat a loaded Jamaican team featuring individual sprint champions Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, to win gold, but a Canada team anchored by Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse beat the favoured US men’s team into silver.

“It felt great to do it, to spoil the party for them,” said De Grasse, who contracted Covid-19 three weeks before the championships and was too fatigued to race the 200m.

“We talked about this moment so many times. We came up a little bit short at the Olympics, and we were all like, we could do better… it’s a good way to end the championship.”

Korir produced a trademark kick from 200 metres out to win the men’s 800m in 1:43.71, well ahead of Algerian Djamel Sedjati with silver and Canada’s Marco Arop bronze.

Pichardo was imperious in the triple jump, all but tying up competition when he went out to 17.95 metres on his first attempt.

In the absence of American multiple global medal winner Christian Taylor, world and Olympic bronze medallist Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso claimed silver, 40cm off Pichardo, while China’s Zhu Yaming took bronze.

In the decathlon, Canada’s Olympic champion Warner was in full control after four of the first day’s five events, but he pulled up injured in the 400m.

He was left lying on the track clutching his left hamstring.

Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delermew is now installed as the overnight leader, with the second day of action comprising the 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m.

Grenada’s Peters retained his javelin throw title with a best of 90.54 metres on his sixth and final attempt for victory, having dominated the competition throughout.

Olympic champ Chopra took silver with 88.13m, while Czech Jakub Vadlejch claimed bronze (88.09).

There was also no mercy shown in the women’s 5000m, where Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay surged down the home straight to win in 14:46.29 ahead of Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet and another Ethiopian, Dawit Seyaum.

Olympic champion Hassan could only finish sixth, meaning she will depart Oregon not having made the podium in either the 5,000 or 10,000m.

Hassan produced a stunning 1,500m-10,000m double at the 2019 world championships in Doha before winning 5,000m and 10,000m gold and 1,500m bronze at last year’s Olympics in Tokyo.

But she admitted that she needed seven months out of competition after her exertions, both mental and physical.

“I really overworked last year so I wanted to get a break for my mental part because athletics is not only about running but also about motivation,” she said.

“It is so hard to get motivated again.”