London 2012 couldn’t have set the bar any higher for Super Saturday and in the end Team GB fell just short of replicating that incredible night four years ago.
While Mo Farah stormed to victory in the 10,000m - even though he fell over - Jessica Ennis-Hill claimed silver in the women’s heptathlon and Greg Rutherford managed a bronze in the men’s long jump, both losing their Olympic champion titles.
Ennis-Hill, 30, was beaten by Belgian Nafissatou Thiam despite winning the final event, the 800m.
She needed to win by around 10 seconds after Thiam managed a massive throw of 55.93m in the javelin earlier in the evening but could only manage a gap of 7.5 seconds.
Fellow Brit Katarina Johnson-Thompson finished 8th overall.
In a tearful interview after the long jump final, Greg Rutherford said he was “gutted” to finish with a bronze medal.
He was beaten by Jeff Henderson of the USA and Luvo Manyonga of South Africa.
Rutherford, 29, told the BBC: “I’m gutted. I came here to win but couldn’t quite get it together.
“... I didn’t jump far enough and that’s difficult. I am pleased I went from fourth back into a medal position but bronze is not good enough for me.
“I am very disappointed.”
But there was elation for Farah, 33, as he became the first British athlete to win three Olympic gold medals.
He saw off a field including long-time rival Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor to finish in a time of 27:05.07.
Paul Tanui of Kenya was second with Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia coming in bronze medal position.
The Brit spent the first few laps of the race at the back letting the Ethiopians set the pace before moving his way up the pack.
Farah had a hairy moment when he tripped but quickly recovered and got back into his stride.
He said after the race: “I’ve won an Olympic gold for three of my children. Now I’d like to win the 5,000m gold for my little boy.
Talking about his fall he added: “I wasn’t going to let it go.
“I got up quickly. I thought about my family. It made me emotional.
“I thought ‘get through, get through’. I believed in myself.”
Great Britain also won a silver medal in the men’s 4x100 metres medley relay.
The USA won seeing Michael Phelps claim his 23rd Olympic gold.
Off the athletics field there were huge successes for Team GB on the water and in the velodrome, see below for full details.