Shelly-Ann Fraser led a Jamaican clean sweep in the Olympic women's 100 metres and Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele retained his 10,000 metres title on another action-packed night at the Bird's Nest yesterday.
It was Jamaican celebration time again following Usain Bolt's record-breaking 100 metres success on Saturday with Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart dead-heating to share silver in the first national sweep of the women's 100.
Ethiopia had to settle for a 1-2, Bekele underlining his position as one of the greatest distance runners of all time by leading home Athens silver medallist Sileshi Sihine.
There was also another world record when Russia's Gulnara Galkina-Samitova took nearly three seconds off her own four-year old mark to win the 3,000 metres steeplechase on its Games debut.
Cameroon's Françoise Mbango Etone retained the women's triple jump crown, Primoz Kozmus gave Slovenia their first-ever athletics gold when he won the men's hammer and Romania's 38-year-old Constantina Tomescu triumphed in the women's marathon.
The women's 100 always looked likely to be a tight one with three Americans and three Jamaicans expected to fight it out.
In the end, however, it was a blur of yellow as Fraser, 21, stormed through to take gold in a personal best 10.78 seconds and her colleagues clocked 10.98.
"I can't believe I actually won. Nobody expected me to," Fraser said.
"It's wonderful, the first three for Jamaica. History," Simpson added.
There were nervous moments for the medallists when the Americans appealed against the result, saying one of their own athletes should have been called for a false start, but officials rejected it.
There was no disputing the winner of the 10,000 as Bekele secured what he hopes will be the first leg of the first long-distance double since 1980 when he unleashed a trademark last-lap blast to win in 27 minutes, 1.17 seconds.
The world champion had been poised like a coiled spring on the shoulder of various athletes who tried to stretch the pace and looked a class of his own to win by 25 metres.
Sihine had to settle for another silver while Micah Kogo snatched bronze for Kenya.
The 1996 and 2000 winner Haile Gebrselassie, aged 35, could not keep up with the young guns and came in sixth.
"This is very special, it's a big gift," said Bekele, who confirmed he would also go for the 5,000, the race he took silver in four years ago.
In the steeplechase Galkina-Samitova, who set the previous record of 9:01.59 four years ago, made sure she avoided trouble by hitting the front early and the chasers gradually dropped off as she maintained her relentless pace.
She eventually won by 50 metres with Kenya's Eunice Jepkorir beating Russian Ekaterina Volkova on the line for silver.
Tomescu crushed all opposition in the marathon after breaking clear at the halfway mark.
She described her effort as a "great performance" and nobody was arguing after a race run in relatively cool conditions with no sign of the smog many feared would make breathing difficult.
Around 50,000 people turned up in the National Stadium just to watch the marathon finish and they had something to cheer about when China's Zhuo Chunxia and pre-race favourite Catherine Ndereba battled it out over the last 400 metres, only for the Kenyan to take silver.
Britain's Paula Radcliffe, struggling with a foot injury, finished a disappointing 23rd.
Hammer winner Kozmus launched his second throw 82.02 metres to finish ahead of Belarussian duo Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan, the world champion.
Mbango Etone won the triple jump with a leap of 15.39 metres with Russian Tatyana Lebedeva taking silver and Greece's Hrysopiyi Devetzi the bronze.
Two of the biggest names of the Games are in action today as newly-crowned 100 metres champion Usain Bolt begins his bid for the double in the 200m heats, and Liu Xiang, China's biggest hope for an athletics gold, starts his defence of the 110 metres title.
Malta's Nikolai Portelli will also take part in the 200m heats.
Six medals are up for grabs, including the women's 800 metres and men's 400m hurdles.