World Athletics Championships: Michael Johnson's five highlights from Eugene 2022

It has been a great World Championships - exciting head-to-head competitions, fast times, world records and compelling personalities. Every one of the 10 days has brought something new to talk about, something new to get you out of your seat.

Here are five of my highlights:

Norman leads stellar 400m cast

Some people might be surprised by this selection, but the men's 400m was one of the best moments for me.

It wasn't the time. In fact, Michael Norman's winning time of 44.29 seconds was not that fast at all. It was some way slower than what I thought would be needed to take gold.

But the stories behind the men taking part were great.

Norman has been poised to be a major championships gold medallist a couple of times. He was favourite going into the previous World Championships in 2019 and at the Olympics last summer. Both times he came up short. A hamstring injury hampered him in Doha and he faded to fifth place in the final in Tokyo.

It was so good to see him finally get that monkey off his back.

Kirani James, Michael Norman and Matt Hudson-Smith filled the 400m podium

Grenada's Kirani James took silver. He won the world and Olympic title while he was still a teenager, has had injury and illness problems, but has kept producing medal-winning performance at every major championship.

Then there was Matt Hudson-Smith. He has had his mental and physical struggles, which he spoke about very openly after the race. His story is testament to how athletes have real-world problems like everyone else. The way he pulled through those to get on the podium will be an inspiration to many.

It was also really cool to see Wayde van Niekerk in fifth. The South African broke my 400m world record at Rio 2016 and won world titles in the years either side of that, but he picked up a terrible knee injury in a charity touch rugby game in 2017 that had prevented him reaching any finals until these World Championships.

The world record no-one saw coming

There were other world records broken at these championships.

Sydney McLaughlin lowered her own 400m hurdles world record.

Armand Duplantis did similar in the pole vault.

But everyone expected or suspected they might. Nobody saw Tobi Amusan's world record coming. The Nigerian obliterated Kendra Harrison's mark of 12.20 with a run of 12.12 in the semi-finals on the final day.

There were a raft of fast times in that event on the final day, which was good to see. But Amusan's was the most amazing of all.

US sweep back to sprint supremacy

The United States' sweep of the men's 100m and 200m would have been impressive in any era, but it was particularly striking given what happened last summer.

At the Olympics in Tokyo, the American men did not win a single individual gold on the track. It was a horrible performance by the standards of the US.

To bounce back and get that sweep, with Fred Kerley taking 100m gold and Noah Lyles winning the 200m, was great to see.

Track and field's future comes into sharp focus

Noah Lyles, who defended his 200m title, is one of the sport's headliners

These championships have really brought the discussion about the sport's future to the boil.

That discussion is nothing new; it is always going on inathletics and was the subject of my first column before the event.

But it has changed gear after Eugene. Now athletes and fans are demanding change to make the sport thrive globally. There is a robust conversation around tangible, proactive actions, which is what is needed.

The pressure is growing and that is a good thing. Let's see where it goes from here.

US makes debut as host

The USA team broke the record for the most medals at a single championships, earning 33 in total, 13 of them gold.

This was the first time in the Championships' 39-year history that they have been held in the US. It started off a little shakily - there were a few empty seats - but in the end Eugene did a good job of hosting.

There was a great atmosphere around the track and in the stands every day. The stadium got decently full.

It would be a mistake to say it was excellent; it did not match every hope we had for the championships.

But you have to remember the last version of these championships in Doha were poorly attended. That problem exists pretty much anywhere this sport goes.

Michael Johnson was speaking to BBC Sport's Mike Henson.