THE ICONIC Usain Bolt did it again on Thursday night – and the streets of Stratford joined forces with those in Kingston, Jamaica, as the Caribbean people on both sides of the Atlantic had one heck of a party.

Bolt’s 200m victory, an historic second time in two successive Olympics that he has won the sprint double, was splashed across every front page across the world.

Wales was also in celebratory mood late on Thursday as Flint teenager Jade Jones won a remarkable gold medal at Taekwondo at the ExCel Arena in her very first Games.

Not quite the mass hysteria of Kingston and East London in North Wales, but she will, for a time, be the face on a first class stamp, and the Royal Mail have painted a letter box in her home town gold. Add the earlier golds for Britain in women’s boxing and dressage and it did turn into one crazy day of medal watching.

Bolt produced a time of 19.32secs but the world record could have gone again had he not slowed down in the last ten metres. It was exceptional.

But look deeper into that wonderful night of athletics on Thursday and you will find a race of such greatness that it could be the greatest Olympic race of all time.

Why? Let me explain.

It was the 800m final and the astonishing David Rudisha did what no man has ever done and broke 1min 41secs for the two laps.

Rudisha did it in a world and Olympic record time of 1min 40.91sec and, at only 23, he will dominate for years to come.

However, the Kenyan winning gold in that astonishing time was only part of this incredible race. Because, behind Rudisha, the field ALL ran the races of their lives!

Botswana’s Nijel Amos, 18, got silver in 1min 41.73secs for a new national record and a new world junior record.

Timothy Kitum, also of Kenya, could not better Rudisha’s global or national mark but still ran a personal best to claim bronze in 1min 42.53secs. And it went on and on. American Duane Soloman in fourth (1min 42.82secs) and countryman Nick Symmonds (1min 42.95secs) in fifth both broke their personal bests.

Another teenage sensation, Mohammed Aman, from Ethiopia, was sixth in a national record of 1min 43.20secs. In seventh, Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki ran his fastest time of the season, while even the British guy Andrew Osagie, who finished eighth and last, broke his personal best with 1min 43.77secs. Osagie’s time was also the fastest of any man finishing eighth out of eight in an Olympic 800m final.

I am not going over the top to say it ranks with the greatest moments in the 116-year history of the Modern Games.