The most magical moments from London 2012

Usain Bolt’s treble defence

The world doubted whether the Jamaican sprinter remained the all-conquering force he was after three golds in Beijing – and he proved the critics wrong.

His amazing 100m win – ahead of training partner and apparent heir Yohan Blake – set the tone after he battled back after slipping in the blocks and crushed the field.

Bolt set a new Olympic record of 9.63s and then won the 200m to become the first man to achieve a double sprint double. And then, on the last night of track competition, he anchored the Jamaican 4x100m team that set a new world record of 36.84s en route to gold – matching his achievement at the 2008 Games.

Danielle Brown on target

The Telford archer became the first English Paralympian to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in an able-bodied event at Delhi 2010 and added another gold at London 2012.

The 24-year-old, who trains at Lilleshall, won gold in Beijing just three years after taking up the sport.

She beat fellow Brit Mel Clarke 6-4 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

But it was a nail-biting finish as competition went down to the final arrow.

Clarke, a Beijing bronze medalist, needed to shoot 10 to win but could only hit seven – her worst arrow of the final – which left her rival to celebrate gold.

Brown was diagnosed at the age of 13 with a neurological condition which causes severe pain in her feet. But she refuses to take any drugs, leaving her in constant pain.

Mickey Bushell takes glory

The 22-year-old from Telford blew the competition away in the T53 100m to race to gold, finishing more than a quarter of a second ahead of Chinese runner-up Zhao Yufei in a Paralympic record of 14.75s.

Birchfield Harrier Bushell took 100m silver at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and again at last year’s world championships in New Zealand.

Nicola Adams’ golden shot

The sparky Yorkshire fighter became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing gold medal after the sport made its debut at London 2012.

The 29-year-old became one of the faces of the Games following her triumph.

Adams defeated Indian fighter Mary Kom in the flyweight semi-final before beating Chinese boxer and world No.1 Ren Cancan in the final, flooring her rival in the process.

Adams was one of three British female boxers to qualify for the Games, along with Natasha Jonas and Savannah Marshall. Jonas won her first fight before losing to Ireland’s eventual gold medal winner Katie Taylor in the lightweights. Marshall went out in the middleweight quarter-finals.

But Adams fought her way to the gold medal bout and, in front of 10,000 fans who had mainly come to see Taylor’s final, outclassed Cancan – who had beaten her in the 2010 and 2012 world championships.

Craig Parnham lifts the gloom

Bridgnorth’s Craig Parnham helped Team GB overcome the crushing disappointment of a semi-final defeat to Argentina and end a 20-year medal drought.

The squad were in tears after their 2-1 loss to the South Americans – but through those tears came the steely determination.

Team GB’s women hadn’t claimed a medal since a bronze in Barcelona and, sitting fourth in the world going into the Games, had high hopes of a medal.

Coach Parnham had competed at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and helped the women to third after they beat New Zealand 3-1 for the bronze.

Second-half goals from Alex Danson, Crista Cullen and Sarah Thomas eased the team’s pain and the disappointment of the men, who finished fourth.

Sir Chris Hoy grabs sixth title

Already a cycling legend, the Scot became Great Britain’s most decorated Olympian when he won the keirin in the Velodrome.

The 36-year-old Scot sent the home crowd crazy as he grabbed his sixth gold medal to defend the keirin title he won in Beijing.

It capped a brilliant Games for Hoy, who admitted afterwards that his Olympic career is 99.9 per cent over with Rio in 2016 just out of reach.

In 2000 he won team sprint silver before claiming gold in the 1k time trial four years later. But it was in Beijing, when he won the sprint, team sprint and keirin, that Hoy really came of age.

And it was fitting he finished his Olympic Games era with gold in the team sprint and, finally, the keirin.

Ellie Simmonds delivers

The Walsall 17-year-old’s bubbly personality does nothing to conceal a competitive spirit of pure granite.

The smiling Simmonds was a Paralympics poster girl who met the pressure and delivered in the pool.

The swimmer hauled in four medals, including a brace of golds.

Her titanic 400m battle with America’s Victoria Arlen was one of the races of the Games. Simmonds had trailed throughout as the graceful Arlen eased through the water at the Aquatics Centre.

But inch by inch Simmonds clawed her way back and in the final stretch, despite admitting afterwards to exhaustion, she summoned up the last of her reserves to get the gold.

Jessica Ennis fulfils her destiny

For four years the Sheffield heptathlete had pressure heaped on her slight shoulders. She was expected to deliver gold in London after missing Beijing with a stress fracture to her ankle – and didn’t she just?

The 26-year-old’s total of 6,955 points was a huge 306 ahead of Germany’s Lilli Schwarzkopf in silver and 327 clear of world champion Tatyana Chernova in bronze.

Her second day of competition was a virtual procession. Ennis’ lead was so great that it was simply a matter of time before her coronation in the Olympic Stadium.

Ennis had delivered in style during the morning session, producing a brilliant long jump under great pressure and a javelin personal best to lead by 188 points with just the 800m to go. In that event, naturally, she stormed to victory.

It was fitting for an athlete under the pressure of a nation and one who had even, ludicrously, been branded fat by an UKA official in the Games build-up.

Mo Farah’s double delight

Mo Farah, like Jessica Ennis, was under extreme pressure but he claimed 10,000m and 5,000m gold in brilliant style.

On ‘Super Saturday’ the Olympic Stadium had already seen Ennis and Greg Rutherford win the heptathlon and long jump respectively before, within the hour, Farah claimed the 10,000m crown.

It was an astonishing run with the crowd already whipped into a frenzy following Ennis and Rutherford’s success.

Farah always looked in control to win in 27 minutes 30.42 seconds.

A week later, at 5,000m, Farah completed an historic double.

Kristian Thomas wins historic bronze

The GB men’s gymnastics team hadn’t won a combined medal for 100 years – until Wednesfield’s Thomas and Co. stunned the world.

Everyone acknowledged they had an outside chance after winning the European Championships in May – but with the USA, China and Japan involved in London, it was a slim one.

But, roared on by a vibrant crowd at the North Greenwich Arena, they came within an upheld appeal of claiming a shock silver – although they were more than happy to settle for their brilliant bronze.

Thomas, Louis Smith, Sam Oldham, Max Whitlock and Dan Purvis battled their way through events on the pommel, rings, vault, parallel bars, high bar and floor to continue their massive improvement.

Yet when Oldham fell on the high bar – the penultimate apparatus – it looked as if their medal hopes had slipped away.

It was a big blow but Thomas produced a brilliant high bar routine before anchoring the team on the floor to haul them back into contention.

David Weir rips rivals to shreds

Four-midable Weir rounded off an astonishing Paralympics with his fourth wheelchair gold medal of 2012 in the marathon.

He dominated the T54 events, winning over distances of 800m, 1,500m and 5,000m before his triumph in the longest event of all.

Weir even had his own werewolf howl, adopted by team-mates from the Warren Zevon number Werewolves of London.