Golden night for Britain

Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah last night struck gold for Britain in front of a capacity crowd of 80,000 at the Olympic Stadium on a sensational evening for the home nation.

Ennis started the party with a dominant victory in the heptathlon before Rutherford leapt to victory in the long jump, the 25-year-old’s winning jump of 8.31 metres coming at precisely the same time as Ennis was being introduced to the fans before her final event, the 800m.

And Farah then rounded off an astonishing three triumphs in the space of 45 minutes with a blistering last lap in the 10,000m, completing it in 53 seconds to take gold ahead of American training partner Galen Rupp.

Ennis had a commanding lead going into the 800m but still stormed to victory to improve her national record to 6,955 points and win by an amazing 327 points from world champion Tatyana Chernova.

“I can’t believe I’ve had the opportunity to come to my first Games in London and won an Olympic Gold medal. It’s unbelievable,” said the 26-year-old from Sheffield, who missed the Beijing Games after suffering a career-threatening foot injury.

“It’s a massive relief because it’s so hard getting through a heptathlon anyway, it just such a tough event.

“But to have come into this event with all that pressure, and everyone just saying, ‘Oh, you’re going to win gold, you’re going to win gold’ - and I know how hard it has been to win it - yeah, I just can’t believe I’ve done it.”

Rutherford, who headed the world rankings in 2012, took the lead in the second round with a jump of 8.21m and was never headed, the 25-year-old from Milton Keynes then jumping 8.31m in the fourth round to extend his lead.

Australia’s Mitchell Watt (8.16m) took silver and American Will Claye (8.12m) bronze, while Rutherford’s British team-mate Chris Tomlinson (8.07m) had to settle for sixth.

World 5,000m champion Farah had thought his race would not come down to the last lap as his rivals feared his sprinting speed, but in the end that was what happened and Farah hit the front at the bell to time his finish to perfection.

The Somalia-born 29-year-old collapsed to the track before being greeted by his seven-year-old stepdaughter Rihanna and wife Tania.

Jamaica struck the first blow in the battle for sprint supremacy as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce success-fully defended her Olympic 100m title.

Fraser-Pryce edged out America’s world champion Carmelita Jeter to win in a time of 10.75s, with Jeter just 0.03s behind and Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown taking bronze in 10.81s.

Chen Ding won China’s first ever men’s Olympic 20 kilometres walk title and first ever medal in the event coming home in a time of 1hr 18 min 46sec.

The 19-year-old beat home Guatemalan Erick Barrondo, who gave his country their first ever Olympic medal in any sport, while another Chinese walker, Wang Zhen, was third.

Defending champion Valeriy Borchin of Russia collapsed and lay distressed against a barrier within two kilometres of the finish while he was in fourth place and had to be stretchered away by medical staff.

Croatia’s two-time European champion Sandra Perkovic won the women’s discus at the Olympics on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Croat, who served a six-month doping ban in 2011, threw a best of 69.11 metres with Russia’s Darya Pischalnikova claiming silver with 67.56m, and China’s Li Yanfeng taking bronze.