London 2012 Olympics, Day 13: David Rudisha and Usain Bolt star in historic double-bill That all changed in the space of 1min 40.91sec as he took on a quality field that included Britain's Andrew Osagie and led them from first step to last. It was not just Rudisha's pace that captivated, but his elegance. As he trailed the other athletes along like a young boy with a kite, he leant into his stride and simply flowed around the track. "In terms of pure performance," said BBC pundit Michael Johnson, "that was the highlight of the Olympics for me. He [Rudisha] is a joy to watch because of the way he attacks it, and goes out and runs the 800m like a sprint almost. For Osagie, however, Rudisha's masterclass in middle-distance running was not the ideal scenario. Nor was the excellence of the rest of the field, all but one of whom ran a personal best. The Essex runner smashed through the 1min 44sec barrier for the first time, producing a performance that would have won any of the previous three Olympic titles. Yet he still finished in eighth and last place. "I went in feeling that I could win this race," Osagie said. The early pace wasn't a surprise. I've been involved in races that started just as fast but the story of those races was that people came back to me. This time, nobody came back. It was make or break except that no one was breaking. The back straight on the second lap is usually where things happen in the 800 metres. I was going past the markers that say 300 metres out, 200 metres, 100 metres and I kept waiting for something to happen. But nothing changed. It was a bit of a surreal race because there wasn't a lot of action but the times and the records show that it made history. Even now I can't believe I came last in front of my own crowd, but it was good to hear Seb Coe describe it as the race of the Olympics. He knows a bit about 800 metre running. Rudisha had been expected to be the warm-up act for the 200m duel between Bolt and Yohan Blake. Yet his performance left the Jamaicans plenty to do to steal back the limelight. Did they succeed? Everyone will have their view. Certainly it was Bolt who dominated the back and the front pages the next morning as he became the first man to do the Olympic sprint double at two successive Games. Bolt and Blake's relationship is intriguing: they are friends and training partners, but there is also an edge there, particularly after Blake's stunning victories in both sprint events at the Jamaican trials just six weeks before the Games. Still, Bolt showed no sign of nerves as he came on to the track, put his hand on the shoulder of a young volunteer, and asked her: "Do you want to run it for me?" There was an eerie, breathless silence in the stadium as the gun went. Blake needed Bolt to get one of his customary slow starts, but he flew away from the blocks. Look at the video, and it takes Bolt only four seconds to overtake the two men outside him in lanes eight and nine. From then on, no one was going to catch the world's fastest man as he clocked 19.32, slightly outside his world record of 19.19 but comfortably ahead of Blake in 19.44. He might even have shaved a couple of hundredths off his time if he had not turned to Blake and mimed a "Shhh" gesture as he crossed the line. The press conference was as much of a performance as the race itself. Bolt was, by turns, funny, engaging and deadly serious. He castigated Carl Lewis for "looking for attention" with his doping insinuations, then finished off with a flourish. I have one more thing to say. I am now a living legend. Bask in my glory. From anybody else, it would have sounded like empty braggadocio. But because Bolt invests almost everything he says with a sense of fun, we laughed along with him. There were British and Irish boxers in the news on this day, as it happens, but they were not the type to grandstand. Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor have been training partners since the early 2000s, when Adams used to travel to Ireland and stay with Taylor's family while they sparred together. Now, on a momentous day for women's boxing, these two experienced fighters both found themselves walking out in front of a baying crowd for gold-medal matches at the Excel Centre. But not against each other, for Adams is now a flyweight and Taylor a lightweight. Both delivered magnificent victories, but it was Adams's thrilling demolition of Chinese world champion Ren Cancan that stopped the nation in its tracks. "The tactics were to go for it, but I was blown away myself by how I was winning the fight," says Adams, who became the first female boxer to win Olympic gold. I thought it was going to be really close because the last couple of times we boxed it has been. But I think I was just so up for this fight I wasn't going to let anything stand in my way. I have no respect for Carl Lewis. He was talking about doping and for me he was just looking for attention. Usain Bolt responds to his most vocal critic after his 200m triumph Charlotte Dujardin Equestrian, individual dressage. Nicola Adams Boxing, women's flyweight. Jade Jones Taekwondo, women's 57kg. Laura Bechtolsheimer Equestrian, individual dressage.