Usain Bolt tonight secured the legendary status he craved by becoming the first man ever to win the Olympic sprint double twice in succession on an historic night in London.
While millions would already consider Bolt a legend for winning triple gold in Beijing and defending his 100m title on Sunday, the Jamaican insisted he also had to retain his 200m title to achieve such status.
And the 25-year-old did precisely that with another imperious performance, leading a Jamaican clean sweep ahead of 100m silver medallist Yohan Blake and Warren Weir, both of whom are just 22.
Bolt's winning time of 19.32 seconds was outside his own world record of 19.19secs which he felt might be a possibility, but the 80,000 crowd had already witnessed one such record after a stunning performance from Kenya's David Rudisha.
Rudisha stormed to victory in the 800m and broke his own world record in the process, storming through the first lap in 49.28 seconds and powering to the gold medal in one minute 40.91 seconds.
That took exactly one tenth of a second off his previous record as all eight finalists set a season's best, personal best or national record.
Eighteen-year-old Nijel Amos of Botswana claimed silver in a world junior record of 1:41.73 ahead of 17-year-old Kenyan Timothy Kitum, with Britain's Andrew Osagie taking 0.71s off his personal best despite finishing eighth.
Amazingly, Osagie's time of 1:43.77 would have won gold at the last three Olympic Games, while it also took him fourth on the British all-time list behind Coe, Steve Cram and Peter Elliott.
Coe's world record of 1:41.73 - the exact time run by 18-year-old silver medallist Amos tonight - stood for 16 years before it was first equalled and then broken by Denmark's Wilson Kipketer, while Rudisha then broke it twice in seven days in 2010.
The softly-spoken 23-year-old won the world title in Daegu last year and had even spoken about the possibility of facing Usain Bolt in the 4x400m relay in London.
That cannot happen after this morning's heats saw Kenya disqualified and the Jamaican quartet fail to finish due to injury, but it is a mouthwatering prospect.