More than 10,000 people attended the two-hour long "Welcome Night" of music, dance and fireworks.

 

 

Among the guests were Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Lamine Diack, President of the Interantional Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), and Klaus Wowereit, the Mayor of Berlin.

 

Joining the dancers, a Jazz Big Band, pop and rock musicians and singers on the huge stage which spanned the entire width of the Brandenburg Gate, were eight legends of the sport, led by Coe, the 1980 and 1984 Olympic 1500 metres champion.

 

He was joined by Sergey Bubka, Frankie Fredericks, Armin Hary, Heike Henkel, Wilson Kipketer, Nawal El Moutawakel, and Willi Wülbeck.

 

The evening ended with the playing of “Foot of the Mountain”, the World Championships title song which was performed by A-Ha, and when this famous Norwegian group finished their short set the sky above Pariser Platz burst into colourful light with a dazzling pyrotechnic display set to music.

 

The competition officially starts tomorrow in the Olympiastadion, which hosted the 1936 Olympics.