David Rudisha’s stunning 800m was picked by Seb Coe as his top moment from the London Olympics, and with good reason.
The Kenyan knocked a tenth of a second off his own world record, with seven of the eight athletes in the race – including Great Britain’s Andrew Osagie – securing personal bests.
Only Abubaker Kaki, of Sudan, didn’t record a new PB, although he did complete the race in a season’s best time.
For good measure, 18-year-old Nigel Amos’s silver medal gave him the honour of picking up Botswana’s first ever Olympic medal (and in a world junior record time).
Christine Ohuruogu won Great Britain’s only athletics gold at Beijing 2008 and was, at that stage, thought to be one of the hosts’ best chances of more glory in the stadium a short walk from where she grew up.
But the 400m runner suffered injury problems, and her chances of being the face of the Games swiftly evaporated following the continued success of Jess Ennis and Mo Farah.
In the 2011 World Athletics championships in Daegu, Ennis won silver in the heptathlon; Farah took home a gold (5,000m) and a silver (10,000m). But Ohuruogu was disqualified in her heat, an ignominious exit for the reigning Olympic champion.
In many ways, Ohuruogu became a forgotten face of London 2012.
But she produced a typical late burst to power to silver in a race won by the American Sanya Richards-Ross to get on the podium against the odds.
It was a brave, battling performance but one which – perhaps inevitably after her Beijing gold – she felt disappointed by. Her tears on the podium initially appeared to be those of joy at having won a medal at the home Games she once feared she would miss out on.
But she later revealed they were tears of disappointment, and that she was heartbroken not to have successfully defended her title.
An Early Bath 