Sprinter's 15.66 in 100m

Sogelau Tuvalu from the tiny South Pacific nation of American Samoa had originally hoped to go to South Korea to take part in the shot put.

But after failing to qualify for the event, the 17-year-old instead decided to turn his sights to the 100m, and entered the preliminary rounds.

Tuvalu told French TV that he had actually trained four hours a day for a month leading up to the championships.

But it was all to no avail: his reaction time of over a quarter of a second put him on the back foot before he even started, and he eventually crossed the line nearly five seconds behind winner Mohammad Noor Imran A Hadi of Malaysia - whose own time of 10.78 was hardly about to set the world on fire.

Yet Tuvalu refused to be downhearted about finishing so far back - and was even thrilled to have clocked a personal best.

"I believed in myself," he said afterward. "This is a dream come true."