Greg Rutherford: Super Saturday was one of the strangest, most surreal things I’ve experienced

Greg Rutherford was crowned men's long jump champion on that night in 2012 , and before watching the re-run, he spoke to Eurosport about his memories of what has gone down as British athletics' finest hour.... You can also scroll down to read his live tweets when watching the action unfold.

This is the first time I’ve watched it back in its entirety. I’ve seen bits. I’ve seen myself jump, and it’s going to be different because I remember being on the track watching Jess win, and then me going through what I did, and then watching Mo win under the Olympic flame, so I’ve seen snippets. I’ve watched my footage for data analysis, but I’ve never sat and watched and immersed myself in it before so it’s going to be exciting.

Walking out into that stadium and the whole crowd erupting, it was one of the strangest, most surreal things I’ve experienced, because nobody at that point really knew who I was. They just saw a British vest and got massively excited and it brought a tear to my eye, I’m not going to lie. It was really emotional, but then had to refocus and jump.

On top of that, being in round six and waiting for the competition to finish and desperately hoping no one jumped further than me because I was the last one to jump, and I was slowly ticking everyone off. And then of course, the moment comes and you become Olympic champion, and you try to figure out the emotions which are taking place, because there’s so much going on in your head, and you realise the overriding feeling you have is relief. Relief that it has finally happened and you’ve had your moment in the sun, and then after that it was a bit of a blur!

I’m always going to be a little biased, but for me it is the greatest moment in British sport. There have been some incredible performances, some great team performances, and amazing individual performances. But I think track and field is arguably the most difficult sport there is in order to win medals in – it is truly a global sport. So for us to get three gold medals, in such a short space of time and at a home Olympics. If this was done in Beijing or Rio – outside of London, it wouldn’t have had the same impact. But it was London, it was three British athletes, and in such a short amount of time, and for me it is the greatest moment in British sport ever – absolutely.

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