By Andy Schooler, Sportinglife.com

History was made on the opening night of the championships when Ethiopian Gezahegne Abera won a thrilling men's marathon.

Abera's victory, which came in a sprint finish inside the stadium after more than 26 miles of gruelling running, made him the first man ever to win both the world and Olympic titles.

Last year's winner in Sydney this time saw off a determined challenge of Kenyan Simon Biwott wo triumph in 2.12.42.

The pair were locked together as they ran into the stadium with just 300m to run.

Then Abera masde his decisive move, moving past his rival as they approached the top bend and, although Biwott threatened a fightback in the final straight, it was this burst which gained gold for Abera.

"When I reached the stadium, I was definite I would win the race because of my sprinting ability," said the Ethiopian afterwards.

He was right.

Abera immediately targeted defending both titles as his future ambition and on this showing there is no reason why that couldn't happen.

Italian Stefano Baldini, the European champion, lived up to his title by claiming bronze, 36 seconds behind the winner.

Tesfaye Tola, also of Ethiopia, was fourth.

A high-quality filed began the race in temperatures well above 20 degrees C and many eyes were on Morocco's Abdelkadir El Mouaziz, this year's London Marathon winner.

A suicidal early breakaway by Trinidad's Ronnie Holassie was caught around the 20km mark and then the real race began.

Having seen two title rivals in world record holder Khalid Khannouchi and South African Gert Thys quit the race, El Mouaziz made his move.

With just over 25km gone, he put his foot down and opened a gap of around ten seconds before the pack responded.

By the 32km point, he had been run down and the Moroccan was forced to join a leading group which was now six strong.

As well as the eventual medallists, it included Japan's Shigeru Aburaya and Tola.

Having seen his break fail, it was no surprise to see El Mouaziz dropped and next to go was the Japanese as Baldini applied the pressure.

As the business end of the event approached, Biwott attacked just after a drinks station and only Aera was able to go with the Kenyan.

Abera then shook his rival with 3km left in what looked to be the vital move, but Biwott summoned inner strength to set up that thrilling finish – one of the closest in major championship history.