Jamaica's Claston Bernard won the decathlon by 145 points after cruising through the final event in Manchester.
Bernard went into the 1500m with a comfortable lead and produced a controlled run to finish with a total of 7830 points.
Australia's Matt McEwen took silver and Jamie Quarry won bronze to claim Scotland's first ever decathlon medal.
Quarry's hopes looked to have been dashed after a dismal performance in the javelin.
But he produced a storming 1500m to snatch bronze from Georgios Andreou of Cyprus, who was pushed into fifth by England's Barry Thomas.
Overnight leader Bernard began the day where he had left off by clocking the fastest time in the 110m hurdles.
He followed up with a solid effort of 43.14m in the discus, stretching his advantage over Quarry beyond the 400-point mark.
But Bernard picked up just 576 points for a disappointing effort of 3.85 metres in the pole vault, compared to Quarry's 4.65m.
And McEwen began his charge to silver by dominating the event with a clearance of 4.85m before coming out on top in the javelin.
Bernard reinforced his position with a personal best of 56.34 metres in the javelin.
And Quarry's chances were dented by a disappointing throw of 50.69m.
But a storming time of 4:31.94 in the 1500m saw him finish more than 30 seconds ahead of Andreou to claim bronze.