The IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea, got underway today in style as Kenya swept the medals in the women’s marathon to create athletics history.

Never before had one nation filled the top three places in either a men’s or women’s marathon at a global championships – be it the Olympics or World Championships.

But today on the course that centred around the Gukchae-Bosang Memorial park in Daegu, Edna Kiplagat lived up to the pre-race expectations to win in 2:28:43 from team-mates Priscah Cheptoo (2:29:00) and Sharon Cherop (2:29:14).

What made her achievement all the more amazing was the fact that during her fastest 5km segment of the race – from 35km to 40km, covered in 16:10 – Kiplagat fell to the ground after being accidentally clipped on the heels by Cherop when reaching for a drink at one of the water stations.

The early pace was slow and at half way 30 women were within a few seconds of each other with no clear leader. Even with 10km left there were still almost 20 women in contention at the front.

But Kiplagat, winner in New York last year and third in London this year, soon got tired of waiting and made a break for it with Cherop and Jeptoo in close pursuit, as well as Ethiopia’s Aberu Kebede.

After the fall, Kiplagat rejoined her team-mates in their small lead pack, but she pushed the pace once more and opened up daylight.

The 31-year-old had a lead of 10 seconds heading into the final few kilometres and by the time she reached the finish line it had increased to a 17-second lead. Jeptoo won the silver ahead of Cherop, while Ethiopia’s Bezunesh Bekele made up significant ground in the closing stages and was just seven seconds off a medal.

The two British representatives had mixed fortunes. Impressive in humid conditions, Susan Partridge clocked her second fastest time ever of 2:35:57 to finish 25th – her highest ever finish at a global championships.

But Alyson Dixon, winner of the Brighton Marathon, had a tough time and after aggravating a niggling foot injury she hobbled home in 42nd position (2:50:51).

Qualification summary

Inside the Daegu stadium, the track and field action also kicked off. Here’s a round up of what happened…

Progressed to next round

» David Rudisha (1:46.23) and Abubaker Kaki (1:44.83) are safely through to the semi-finals of the 800m, as well as former Olympic champ Yurir Borzakovskiy and Polish duo Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski.

» All the favourites are through in the women’s discus – Nadine Muller (65.54m), Li Yanfeng (64.44m) and Yarrelis Barrios (63.80m). Defending champion Dani Samuels just squeezed through in 11th place overall (60.05m) while Olympic champion Stefanie Brown-Trafton also progressed (61.89m).

» French entrants led the two qualifying groups in the pole vault, with Renaud Lavillenie and Romain Mesnil booking their place in the final. Poland’s Pawel Wojciechowski only just made the cut though, after failing three times at 5.60m.

» Former drugs cheat Binnaz Uslu was surprisingly the quickest in the women’s 3000m steeplechase heats. The Turk set a national record of 9:24.06 to win the first heat from Tunisia’s Habiba Ghribi. Sofia Assefa won the second heat, while the favourite Milcah Chemos was up against European champ Yuliya Zaripova in the final heat, both easily qualifying.

Shock exits

» The biggest surprise of the morning was that of world and Olympic champion Steve Hooker failing to make the pole vault final. The Australian failed to clear his opening height of 5.50m. Fellow Olympic medallists Denys Yurchenko and Yevgeniy Lukyanenko also failed to make it through.

» German decathlete Rico Freimuth, who has improved to 8287 this year, went out of the competition after three fouls in the long jump.

» Most of the big names made it through in the 800m. NCAA silver medallist and sub-1:45 man Charles Jock went out in the heats when he would have been expected to at least make it to the semi finals.

Multi events

» Ashton Eaton is on course for the gold medal in the decathlon. He was fastest in the 100m (10.46), then long jumped 7.46m and threw 14.44m in the shot. Defending champion Trey Hardee currently leads overall (2680 points), but Eaton has several good events yet to come (400m, 110m hurdles, 1500m). Hardee has not quite been at his best in the first three events, while Cuba’s Leonel Suarez has been performing better than expected and could well challenge for the silver medal.

How the Brits did

» Andrew Osagie looked easy in his 800m, jogging across the line to make it safely through (1:46.08), but Michael Rimmer, still struggling from a pelvic injury struggled and went out in fifth place in his heat (1:47.11).

» Barbara Parker became the first British woman ever to make a World Championships 3000m steeplechase final. Despite suffering a stitch with 600m to go, Parker finished fifth in the most loaded heat, clocking 9:38.21.

» Steve Lewis made his second successive World final in the pole vault. Despite his three failures at 5.60m, his 5.50m clearance was good enough to progress.