The championships were heavily affected by post-championship doping cases, particularly from the Russian team, who in subsequent years were stripped of eleven medals, seven of them gold.

[2] When the seeking deadline passed on 1 December 2006, four candidate cities (Brisbane, Daegu, Moscow and Gothenburg) had confirmed their candidatures.

[4] Brisbane was announced as the Australian candidate with the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (formerly ANZ Stadium) as the proposed venue for a championships to be held in July or August.

Among the intent candidates were Casablanca (Morocco) and Split (Croatia), both of which were failed bidders for the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.

[3] The United States intent candidate city matched those bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics: Chicago, Los Angeles or San Francisco.

[8] Both Moscow and Brisbane later confirmed their candidacy to host the 2013 World Championships in Athletics – a selection process won by the Russian capital.

Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt, both from Jamaica, won two gold medals, being the most successful athletes in the men's events.

[10] Cuba's Dayron Robles finished first in the race of the Men's 110 metres hurdles, but was disqualified for interfering with Liu Xiang twice before and over the last barrier.

Jason Richardson was awarded the Gold, Liu the Silver, and Andy Turner promoted to the Bronze medal position.

Most successful female athlete was Allyson Felix having won two relay golds and silver and bronze in her individual events.

[16] Originally, host nation South Korea failed to win any medals at these championships, a fate shared with Sweden in 1995 and Canada in 2001.

However, in 2015, South Korean athlete Kim Hyun-sub was promoted from sixth place to bronze medalist in the 20 km walk after three Russian race walkers were disqualified for doping offences.