As the curtain fell on Sunday night on the world championships, and athletics waved a painful goodbye to Usain Bolt, its greatest sprinter and showman, there was a cautious confidence in London among its power brokers. Against expectations, a sport that has been on its knees appeared to have just received the kiss of life.

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Sebastian Coe, president of the IAAF, the governing body of athletics, said: “The theatre that has been provided by those full houses has been incredible. We have had more people in 10 days across a world championship than ever before. And I genuinely can’t remember a time when the sport was so competitive and the stories around them so rich.”

It is not just that 700,000 people have come through the gates over the past 10 days, filling out the London Stadium night after night. Or that 9.9 million people tuned in to watch Bolt’s and Mo Farah’s farewell on BBC1 on Saturday night. It was that a combination of spectacular performances and unpredictable races, plus a steady patter of controversy and conspiracy theories has kept the sport on the nation’s front and back pages.

Ed Warner, co-chair of these championships, was even more succinct than Coe. “The London 2012 Olympics gave the nation its self-belief back,” he said. “London 2017 has given athletics its belief back. It has given the sport the opportunity to believe again.”

It was understandable why the sport wants to stare forward rather than look over its shoulder. It was only last year that several senior figures in the IAAF, including its former anti-doping director Gabriel Dollé, were banned for their part in a scheme in which they extorted the Russian marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova of £378,000 to keep results of her positive drug tests secret.

Separately Russia was banned from the 2016 Olympics after a report by Wada’s independent commission found the country was guilty of “state-sponsored doping”, while the low crowds at the Rio Games did nothing to alter the appearance of a sport on the wane.

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London, though, was rich with vivid moments. Home eyes naturally gravitated to Mo Farah winning his 10th successive Olympic and world championship medal in the 10,000m on the opening night – and then losing his first 5,000m for four years on the penultimate evening.

Meanwhile Bolt, to stunned silence and venomous boos, not only lost to the sport’s ultimate villain Justin Gatlin – who has failed two doping tests – in the men’s 100m but then pulled up with cramp in a thrilling 4x100m men’s relay.

But quite often other surprising stories gripped the nation too. Who would have thought that the Botswanan Isaac Makwala would get one of the biggest cheers of these championships? Yet when he ran a 200m heat on his own in the lashing rain, having been barred from entering the stadium a night earlier when he was meant to be in quarantine for norovirus, the stadium roared in delight.

Yet a few days later there was a twist as the South African Wayde van Niekerk, supposedly athletics’ new superstar, broke down in tears before claiming he had been disrespected by a wild conspiracy theory that Makwala had been kept out of the 200m in order to make life easier on him.

Yet no matter how much Coe wanted the issue of doping to stay in the background, it was always bubbling under the surface. On Sunday morning Farah went as far as to accuse parts of the media of having a vendetta against him for questioning his coach Alberto Salazar, who is under investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Salazar denies any wrongdoing.

“It’s like a broken record, repeating myself,” said Farah. “If I’ve crossed the line, if Alberto’s crossed the line, why bring it up year after year, making it into headlines? I’ve achieved what I have achieved – you’re trying to destroy it,” said Farah, following his last race on the track at a major championships.

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“So many times you guys have been unfair to me. If you say Mo Farah has done something wrong‚ prove it.”

For most of the championships British athletes enjoyed limited success. But a glorious final weekend in which Farah took silver in the 5,000m, along with four relay medals, meant they hit their UK Sport target of 6-8 medals in London.

Some wonder whether athletics will be able to maintain the momentum given its credibility issues and the fact that the next championships in 2019 will controversially take place in Doha in Qatar, the Gulf state that will also host the 2022 World Cup.

Coe, however, argues that, despite his sport’s lingering issues, it has turned a corner. “There is a growing confidence within the sport,” he insisted last night. “We took tough decisions and reforms to make the sport better. There is still a long way to go. But people are proud about being involved in the sport.”

“What we have witnessed this week will inspire a generation of young people. We have shown that, when we get it right, this sport is unassailable.”

The verdict is still very much out on that. But after a desperate and suffocating few years for the sport, athletics might just have room to breathe – and hope – again.