Mo Farah and Usain Bolt, the golden boys of London 2012 – in pictures

The main event on the penultimate day of the Olympics, as far as the home crowd was concerned, was the men's 5,000m in which Mo Farah was seeking his second gold medal of the Games
Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian

The pace was unusually slow for the opening three laps and Farah sat back, content to jog around the track. He then began to move through the field to step up the tempo and disturb his rivals
Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

With the pace slowly escalating Farah was in his element
Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian

He led around the final bend and into the home straight but was under immense pressure from Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremeskel
Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

Farah held on to win his second gold of the Games – and the stadium erupted with joy
Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

As he crossed the line the Briton saluted his adoring fans
Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian

... and performed his customary 'Mobot' celebration
Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian

As if running the final lap in 52 seconds wasn't enough, he dropped to the floor and performed some one armed sit-ups
Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian

His time of 13min 41.66sec was only a fraction of a second ahead of his rival but enough to seal a historic track double
Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

Farah had to wait longer than anticipated to receive his medal but, fittingly, his was the final track medal awarded at the end of the night
Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

In the other marquee event of the evening Usain Bolt of Jamaica was hunting his third gold medal of the Games in the men's 4x100m relay
Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

Bolt ran the fourth and final leg where he faced competition from Ryan Bailey of the US. Bailey had a marginal lead at the handover point but Bolt came through to win gold in a new world record time of 36.84sec
Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

The Jamaicans celebrated gleefully
Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian

... none more so than Bolt, who led the crowd in a Mexican wave
Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian

Bolt and Farah, who are good friends, then took to the podium and performed one another's trademark celebrations, much to the delight of the crowd
Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian