Sebastian Coe has declared the athletic performances at the Doha World Championship as the best ever.

"Our sport is in pretty good shape. It is pretty clear to us on athlete performance this is the best World Championships we have ever had," he  said. 

However, Great Britain's final medal tally of five is the lowest since 2005 - when they won just three.

Four of the five went to the women and the silver in the 4x100m relay was the men's only success, with no individual medal winners for the first time since 2007.

But a closer look at the stats suggests there are still causes for optimism.

GB performance historically is very consistent

While a lot has been made of the "mere" five medals, it is actually not that far below medal tallies from world championships in the previous 12 years.

Between 2001 and 2005, Team GB won two, three and three medals respectively. Since then, the team has won six medals twice and seven on three occasions.

Britain finished in sixth place in the medal table this time around, the same as two years ago, and in fact have only twice finished higher since 1995.

GB's women are taking centre stage

With four of the five medals going to GB's women, it equals their tally from the 2013 Championships in Moscow. But there has been a startling turn of fortunes in the past few decades for them.

Between 1993 and 2005 female athletes from Britain won a total of 11 medals in seven championships. In the seven championships since then, the women have won 25 medals.

It has been a remarkable upturn in performance from the women, as the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Paula Radcliffe and relay teams have paved the way in the past.

Now, with Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson playing a starring role in Doha, the trend looks likely to continue.

More nations winning medals also an impact

In Doha, 43 nations saw at least one of their athletes win a medal, the same as 2015, and the highest number since 2007.

Only two championships since 1995 have seen less than 40 countries having a medal winning athlete.

With countries like Uganda and the Netherlands producing world-class athletes on a regular basis now, it makes it tougher for the more established nations like Team GB to dominate.

Coe also addressed the decision to host the championships in Doha, given controversial political elements circling the event due to human right issues in Qatar.

He said: "It is really important the sport moves around the world and it cannot forge its relationships based on political structures or transitory political systems. 

"We would not have sporting relationships [otherwise]. That is why sport will continue to work and sweat as hard as it does to make social change. We are not competitors, we are collaborators and organisations that are smart are actually partnering as they realise they can elicit that change.

"It's important sport can rise above political structures. Fundamentally, I believe sport is the best diplomat we have."