Yelena Isinbayeva has officially announced her retirement from athletics, a day after being elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

It is a straightforward enough template: Usain Bolt, triple Olympic 100 and 200 metres champion. 

It’s seven years since Kerron Clement won a global 400 metres hurdles title - but victory today in 47.73sec clearly came as no surprise to him as he had already made space in his medals cabinet for a first Olympic gold.

Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson bucked the trend on a huge night for United States women athletes as she became the first woman since Florence Griffith-Joyner at Seoul in 1988 to win the sprint double at the Olympics, winning the 200 metres in 21.78sec after holding off the world champion Dafne Schippers of The Netherlands, who clocked 21.88.

Conseslus Kipruto maintained Kenya’s great tradition in the Olympic 3,000 metres steeplechase here as he became his country’s ninth consecutive winner in an Olympic record of 8min 03.28sec.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has announced the appointment of Olivier Gers as their new chief executive following a six-month search.

Two emerging 22-year-old talents came of age here tonight as Jamaica’s effervescent Omar McLeod won the men’s 110m hurdles and Faith Kipyegon of Kenya outsprinted Ethiopia’s world champion Genzebe Dibaba to take the women’s 1500m gold.

Christian Taylor and Sandra Perkovic defended their respective men’s triple jump and women’s discus titles here in a morning session of athletics which also saw the forlorn departure of the woman who has carried Brazil’s gold medal hopes on her shoulders for four years, Fabiana Murer.

Two runners in this morning's 5000 metres heats, Nikki Hamblin and Abbey D'Agostino, reminded themselves and the wider world of what the Olympic spirit is all about.

Heavy rain delayed fourth day of evening athletics session here – but it was worth the wait as it provided the host nation, and a delirious home crowd, with one of the great Olympic shock victories as 22-year-old pole vaulter Thiago Da Silva set an Olympic Games record of 6.03 metres to defeat the defending champion and world record holder Renaud Lavillenie and secure a second gold medal for Brazil at Rio 2016. 

The Rio 2016 athletics programme had its third world record here this morning – a hammer throw of 82.29 metres with which Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk earned gold – and it might have had a second had Ruth Jebet run  a second faster in winning the 3,000 metres steeplechase title in 8min 59.75sec.

Whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova has launched a devastating attack on International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach and questioned whether he is the right person to lead the worldwide fight against doping.

Long jumper Darya Klishina is eligible to compete for Russia at Rio 2016 after a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

A stupendous night of athletics here produced the result that most people wanted to see as Usain Bolt beat Justin Gatlin to earn a third consecutive Olympic 100 metres title in 9.80sec, but even that huge feat was overshadowed by the performance of South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk as he won 400m gold from lane eight in a world record of 43.03, breaking Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old mark.

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.