Super Saturday is consistently voted at the No. 1 sporting achievement by British Sports fans. It wasn’t the fact that British athletes won gold medals, it was the number and timing of them.
During the evening of Saturday August 4, in London’s Olympic stadium in front of 80,000 spectators, plus a large proportion of the nation watching on TV, three gold medals were won in the space of 44 minutes.
Jessica Ennis-Hill smashed her own British record to win the heptathlon, Greg Rutherford took gold in the long jump and finally Mo Farah, who would go on to win the 5,000m seven days later, stormed to 10,000m gold – all in the space of a quite astonishing 44 minutes.
But “Super Saturday” was more than just the athletics. Earlier in the day on August 4 2012, R 11.36, Great Britain’s Men’s Coxless Fours won gold on the water. Before noon, Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking won the the women’s double sculls.
That win capped off Team GB’s most successful ever rowing regatta and then in the early evening at the Olympic Velodrome, Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell took women’s team pursuit gold – breaking the world record in the process.
Then attention turned to the athletics,Jessica Ennis-Hill clinched the heptathlon title shortly after 9pm, followed by Rutherford in the long jump and then Farah in the 10,000m.
It was the nation’s best ever athletics session at a Summer Games and Great Britain’s most successful day at the Olympics since the 1908 Games.
Enjoy.