On an extraordinary day for British sport, the dreams of some of our greatest performers were finally fulfilled.
On the Thames at Eton Dorney, the mens' coxless four maintained an amazing record and continued to follow in the footsteps of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, winning Gold without ever looking like not doing so. Almost immediately after this expected triumph came an unexpected one, with Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland destroying the field to win Gold in the womens' lightweight double scull; this pair have been rowing together for only a very short time but their assurance on the water denied their inexperience. Their win was the third for the British womens' team, following those of Heather Stanning and Helen Glover in the womens' pair, and Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins in the heavyweight double scull, and being the first wins ever for British women in the Olympic games.
Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter were unable to defend their lightweight double scull title being pipped for Gold by the Danes but, when attention swithched to the velodrome, the womens' 3000m pursuit team of Joanna Rowsell, Laura Trott and Dani King produced an astonishing ride to break the world record for the sixth event in a row and come close to catching their rivals in the Gold Medal race. Three Golds and a Silver, and the evening's athletics yet to come.
Even before the athletics got under way, we had another piece of drama as Andy Murray and Laura Robson won through to the final of the mixed doubles and a certain Silver Medal. Their win over the German pairing of Kase and Lisicki was hard fought and well deserved and leaves Murray with the prospect of playing 2 finals in quick succession, with Roger Federer waiting for him in the mens' singles.
But then it was the athletics. The evening started slowly, with everyone waiting for the big events; the final event of the womens' heptathlon and then the mens' 10,000. The wonderful Jessica Ennis was already an almost certain champion after some terrific performances earlier in the competition, the fastest ever 100m hurdles in a heptathlon and personal bests in the 200m and javelin. Just after 9 o'clock she set out on the 800m and, in true Ennis style, beat the field to be crowned as the best female all-round athlete in the world. For good measure, she also broke her own British and Commonwealth records and ran-up the 12th best score ever, those scores having been achieved by only 4 athletes.
While Ennis was enjoying her moment of success and leading her fellow competitors on their traditional lap of honour, Greg Rutherford produced his Gold Medal winning leap in the long jump. To say his success was unexpected is probably an understatement, but it was only one fine jump in a good series and, again, the win was a well-deserved culmination to years of dedication. Within not much more than another 30 minutes, Mo Farah hit the front in the 10,000 metres and led the field through the tape to win yet another Gold for his country and cement his place in British athletics history; never before has a British male won an Olympic distance race.
What a day, what a night. Today, Sunday, there will be more medals to celebrate as Andy Murray goes for double Gold in the tennis and our sailors start to compete for Gold in their final medal races. So far, it's been an amazingly successful story for British competitors; can it possibly continue ?
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