Americans Lewis and Michael Johnson lead the overall tally, with Lewis on 8-1-1 and Johnson on a perfect 9-0-0 with his 400m world record from Seville 1999 still valid.

Lewis' silver comes from an epic 1991 long jump duel in Tokyo in which rival Mike Powell took gold with a world record 8.95m.

Bubka's six golds have gone down in history along with his 34 career world records, Jonathan Edwards' triple jump world record from 1995 in Gothenburg is unforgotten and Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie dazzled the crowds with his long-distance heroics from 1993 onwards.

That event in Stuttgart also saw Merlene Ottey's heartbreaking 100m photo-finish defeat to Gail Devers in the 100m. It remains unrivalled for crowd support -- which not even the August edition in Berlin will match.

But the worlds have also seen their share of doping and other disgrace.

Italian judges 'helped' Giovanni Evangelisti to a long jump bronze 1987 in Rome before TV evidence later revealed that that the home boy had not jumped that far. American sprinter Jon Drummond was kicked out in 2003 for a furious false start protest.

Ben Johnson lost his 100m title and world record from 1987 in the aftermath of his Olympic doping shame the following year. In 2003, Kelli White was stripped of her 100m and 200m double for substance abuse in what turned out to be the first case related to the Balco lab scandal which eventually also hit Marion Jones.

Held every four years in the beginning, the worlds changed to a two-year rhythm in 1991 due to the appeal of the event which has allowed more than 80 countries to celebrate medals.

With the old amateur rules abolished by the International Olympic Committee, the IAAF also introduced prize money, with a gold medal worth $80,000 since 1997 and a world record another 100,000.