Christine Ohuruogu of Great Britain became her country’s first woman to win the Olympic 400m. Ohuruogu won in a time of 49.62sec as race favourite Sanya Richards of the US blamed a hamstring injury for tying up badly down the home straight, finishing third behind Shericka Williams of Jamaica.

There was an even bigger surprise earlier when Germaine Mason claimed Britain's first athletics medal of the games with a silver medal in the high jump. The 25-year-old equalled his personal best with a clearance of 2.34m to finish second behind Russia’s Andrey Silnov, who secured gold with a first-time clearance of 2.36m. Russia's Yaroslav Rybakov took bronze after matching Mason's clearance of 2.34m but losing out on countback after two failures at 2.32m.