Spectators at day two’s morning session - unlike the previous and partially rainswept day, the Olympic Stadium was almost full - enjoyed blue skies and constant sunshine as Usain Bolt made a winning start to his quest for a 100/200 metres Olympic hat-trick and Germany's Christoph Harting produced a dramatic final effort to win the discus title his elder brother Robert claimed four years ago in London.

Also on the bill of fare was a heptathlon long jump competition which saw Britain’s defending champion Jessica Ennis-Hill set herself up nicely for the two final events despite even better efforts coming in from her two young rivals for gold - 21-year-old Nafi Thiam of Belgium and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, her 23-year-old fellow Briton.

There is clearly a success gene within the Harting family given the way 26-year-old Christoph reacted to the challenges he faced a day after his elder brother, who has struggled with injury, failed to qualify for the final.

After five of the six throwing rounds had been completed, Harting was in silver medal position behind Poland’s 33-year-old world champion Piotr Malachowski, who had thrown 67.55 to his 66.34 metres. 

And then it all kicked off…

First, Martin Kupper of Estonia knocked the German down to bronze position with a final effort of 66.58m. 

Next, Harting found himself knocked off the podium by fellow German Daniel Jasinski, whose final effort reached 67.05m.

It was all on the last throw for the athlete whose peak performance before this was a tantalising fourth place at last month’s European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.

And he hurled the disc out to a personal best distance of 68.37m which Malachowski, suddenly silver, could not match.

Harting may have his elder brother’s athletic drive, but he clearly does not share his general outlook.

Harting senior – who at 31 has won three world titles - will forever be noted for his shirt-ripping activities in moments of triumph and his crazed attempt at high hurdling in the wake of his London 2012 win.

He has also established himself as a fierce critic in the sport, berating the International Association of Athletics Federations over recent scandals and most recently condemning the International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach for his reluctance to invoke an across-the-board Olympic ban on Russian competitors in the wake of widespread doping abuses.

Here is the view of Harting Jnr: "I am not a PR person. I don't like to answer questions and I do not look for publicity. 

"I like the stadium and this is my scene. 

"Everything else I leave to other people."

Malachowski revealed that Harting had come up to encourage him before he took his final throw, which reached 65.38m.

"He is nice, but a little weird," said Malachowski.

“He told me 'Come on, fight. Try to throw longer than I did'.

“We fight in the stadium, but we both know what each other is capable of.

“He knew that I was the leader from the start to the last round, and suddenly he beat me.”

Malachowski added: “I wasn't surprised by his result, but I was more worried about Daniel Jasinski. 

"He was on fire - he's young.

"In discus throw at this level, you can just make a little side step - details matter.

“You can put your feet just a little bit differently and it can add two or three metres.

“He [Harting] did something smoother and that's why he got a few extra metres."

Bolt, who qualified fourth fastest in a list headed by his US rival Justin Gatlin in 10.01sec, caused the noise level in the stadium to rise to that familiar buzzing that always accompanies his efforts.

The crowd then began chanting "Bolt...Bolt..Bolt", which he acknowledged before placing a finger over his lips – visible on the big screen - to appeal for quiet before getting away to a slow start but picking up by the halfway point to cruise home in 10.07.

"It wasn't the best start, I felt kind of slow," he said.

“I'm not used to running this early at any championship.

"Hopefully tomorrow I'll come out and I'll feel much better, much smoother.

“I'm feeling good, I'm happy.

“As I said, I've got the first one out of the way so I'm happy about that.

“So now it's all about execution and getting it right when it comes to the finals.”

After five of the seven heptathlon events - and with the javelin and 800m remaining - Thiam led with 5,018 points thanks to her winning long jump of 6.58m, with Ennis-Hill just five points behind her after managing 6.34m.

Third place is now held by Ennis-Hill's younger team-mate Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who also excelled in the long jump with 6.51m and now has 4,967 points and is 60 points clear of Akela Jones of Barbados.

Looking at the personal bests of the heptathletes currently in medal positions, you have to say that things are looking good for Ennis-Hill, even setting aside her experience as a supreme championship performer.