OK, let's get out a nice little ribbon now and wrap up this puppy known as the IAAF World Athletics Championships.

The Daegu, South Korea, track and field extravaganza took fans of the most rudimentary of games through a gamut of emotions over its nine days of action.

For the athletes, it drew tears of joy, pain and sorrow I suppose that's why we watch as they perform; to see human brilliance and frailty - often in the same event and at the same time.

The highlights and lowlights came thick and fast at the well-run meeting (take a bow Daegu, wherever you are) and I have, for my own pure delight, chosen the three best and worst moments of the champs.

Being a glass half-full kinda guy, I shall start with the worst.

THE WORST

1) Usain's bolt

The only person on this planet, and perhaps in the entire universe, that could have beaten the world's fastest man in the 100m was the dude himself, Usain Bolt. And he did. False starting denied him another golden treble on the world's great stages and let down the entire track and field world. Fortunately, Jamaican teammate Yohan Blake won the gold to stop that island nation from sliding into the Caribbean Sea under the weight of combined grief and misery.

2) Not-so-happy Hooker

Ginger-haired Steven Hooker was regarded as Australia's golden boy heading into the meet. However, the reigning Olympic pole vault champion failed to clear the bar even once and was eliminated in the qualifiers.

3) Really, relay bad

For all the talent it possesses and speed it has, the US men's sprint relay team always seems to have a collective brain fart when it comes time to perform on the big stage. This meet, third-leg runner Darvis Patton decided it would be an exceptionally good idea to fall over before passing the baton to anchor Walter Dix.

Dishonorable mentions: Dayron Robles, Yelena Isinbayeva.

THE BEST

1) Really, relay good

Only one world record fell at the entire meet, and it took the final race of the event, the men's 4x100m, for it to tumble but how. No Asafa Powell, no Steve Mullings, no problem. Sprint powerhouse Jamaica, anchored by Bolt, ran 37.04 seconds to beat its previous record of 37.10 and end the meet on a high.

2) The walk of pain

I was thinking of tossing this into the worst category, but opted for more heroic than pyrrhic in due respect to Russian ironman Sergey Bakulin's "stroll" to victory in the 50km walk. I know, walk races were invented so white people could win races at the Olympics and World Championships too, but is there any more excruciating way in the world to claim gold?

3) King James

Kirani James. Who? Grenada. Where? OK, let me explain, this 19-year-old from a pin-prick of an island in the eastern Caribbean is the most exciting young prospect in track and field. He beat out US favorite LaShawn Merritt in a thrilling 400m final by .03 of a second. Now, the world can't wait to see if he drops down to the 200m or Bolt moves up to the 400 for a clash of the ages.

Honorable mentions: Carmelita Jeter, Allyson Felix, the Kenyan distance runners, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Sally Pearson, Daegu.

Tym Glaser is a senior sports copy editor who loves to see some of the teams that wear green and gold perform well. He can be contacted at tymglaser@hotmail.com