Jemima Sumgong delivered Kenya its first Olympic women’s Marathon title in scorching conditions as she clocked 2hr 24min 04sec at the Sambodromo, home to the world-famous Carnival parade - and according to her the result was never in doubt.

British hopes for a re-run of "Super Saturday" from London 2012 fell short here tonight, but gold for Mo Farah in the 10,000 metres, silver for Jessica Ennis-Hill in the heptathlon and bronze for Greg Rutherford in the long jump surely constituted a "Satisfactory Saturday" at the least.

This is the way athletics at the Olympic Games is supposed to feel.  

An extraordinary opening morning session of athletics here which included a huge world 10,000 metres record by Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana and the best high-jumping ever seen within a heptathlon competition took place in a 60,000-capacity Olympic Stadium that appeared less than half full.

An American record effort from Michelle Carter with her last throw tipped the women’s shot put final on its head here tonight and denied New Zealand's Valerie Adams a third consecutive Olympic victory.

Almaz Ayana provided the opening session of the Rio 2016 athletics programme here with a historic flourish as she took more than 14 seconds off the world 10,000 metres record which has stood, apparently invulnerable, since 1993, claiming the first track and field gold of the Olympics in a time of 29min 17.45sec.

British cycling’s apparently inexhaustible capacity to reinvent its wheels made for a thunderous statement of intent on the opening day of the track programme as their men’s team sprint trio - with 23-year-old Callum Skinner in for the retired legend that is Sir Chris Hoy - beat world champions New Zealand to earn gold in an Olympic record of 42.440sec.

Will the Rio 2016 athletics programme, which gets underway tomorrow, become part of the Usain Bolt Narrative in the way that Beijing and London have already been?

China’s Ma Long became only the fifth man to complete a career table tennis grand slam of Olympic, world and World Cup titles with an imperious display against his fellow countryman Zhang Jike, the defending champion.

As South Africa’s Caster Semenya heads towards what could be a controversial victory in the women’s 800m final at these Olympic Games,International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe has underlined his organisation’s intention to challenge the ruling which suspended the monitoring of female athletes with higher than usual levels of testosterone.

Italy's Alex Schwazer, who is here in Rio ahead of the men’s 20 kiloemtres walk on the first day of the athletics programme on Friday (August 12), has had his appeal against an eight-year ban for a second doping violation turned down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Since women’s table tennis was introduced to the Olympics at Seoul in 1988 there has been only one country providing the individual gold medallist, namely China – and Ding Ning maintained that incredible run tonight here as she reversed the result of the London 2012 final against compatriot Li Xiaoxia.

Major changes to the governance of world athletics, approved here today by the International Association of Athletics Federations Council, will make “a massive difference” to the sport, according to its President Sebastian Coe.

Áron Szilágyi of Hungary successfully defended his men’s sabre Individual title with a 15-8 win over Daryl Homer of the United States at the Carioca Arena today, but Italy’s London 2012 foil individual champion Elisa Di Francisca narrowly failed to do the same as she was beaten 12-11 by Russia’s world champion Inna Deriglazova.