Hicham El Guerrouj beat not only his rivals but also a partisan Stade de France crowd to win his fourth-successive World Championships gold medal at the 1500m.

El Guerrouj shrugged off the noisy din made by a French crowd that had set its heart on victory for France's European champion Mehdi Baala to come home in a time of three minutes 31.77 seconds.

El Guerrouj admitted the atmosphere had made this victory more problematic than usual, saying: "This is my fourth World Championship medal. It was very difficult for me with the crowd."

Taking a total grip of the race with two laps left to run and producing a last 400m circuit of 54.44secs, the world record holder's response, every time Baala tried moving onto his shoulder, was to accelerate a little faster.

Baala could not be faulted for the total commitment he put into sending home the French fans happy, clocking a time of 3:32.31, with Ukraine's Ivan Heshko clinching third in 3:33.17.