End of the road for Paula Radcliffe

He looked every inch the favourite for gold, but a word of caution: he has never produced his best in a major outdoor global championships and there is still a question mark over his ability to deal with the pressure in the final.

That said, if he produces his best on Thursday he will win it.

Phillips is at his third Games and I'm sure he'll know what is best for him in terms of preparation for the final. I tried to keep myself to myself and have just a few friends around me.

In those pressured moments my faith was also really important to me which is quite paradoxical now that I've lost it.

Nonetheless, it was essential to my jumping and it gave me perspective that took some of the pressure away. I believed my fate was in God's hands and I would simply go out and do my best. I trusted that - win, lose or draw - God would still love me.

Faith gives you the framework for dealing with pressure beforehand and the possibility of both failure and success afterwards.

Thankfully, Team GB has not had too much failure to contend with in recent days and the performances over the weekend which pushed Britain up to third in the medals table have been manna from heaven for London 2012. To have had a disappointing Games would not have been a complete disaster for the next host city but it would certainly have cast a shadow.

But I don't think there is any room for complacency because the majority of the medals are being won in three sports - cycling, sailing and rowing. When UK Sport, which allocates hundreds of millions of pounds of public money to these sports, does its post-Beijing assessment it will be looking not just at the successes but also at the sports that have not delivered value for money.

I'm sure they at least will be hard-nosed and not get swept away by the feelgood factor. We have dominated cycling in a way that is unprecedented for Britain in any sport in modern times - even at the high point in track and field. But it's one thing achieving success and another maintaining that. In cycling you have found that a very talented group of athletes have come around at the same time and while the governing body for cycling is doing a fantastic job, there is a touch of serendipity in their collective achievements.

While Super Saturday was happening for the British team, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt was also making it a weekend to remember.

The 100 metres final was the most amazing thing I have seen in an athletics stadium. Bolt is a freak of nature, and I say that in the nicest way, because he is 6ft 5in with a massive stride and leg speed. We've not seen his like before in sprinting, and what he did almost defies belief. He must have felt the pressure but the carefree manner in which he ran was a breath of fresh air. It helped to erase the memory of Ben Johnson's win in Seoul in 1988 Olympic Games.

I watched that from the stands on the back straight and was utterly astounded by what I witnessed. I felt cheated when I later found out that Johnson tested positive but the emotional impact of the race remained.

There may be some who doubt that Bolt is a clean athlete but I absolutely believe he is.

Perhaps I am more persuaded than many others that I talk to because I hold a world record and know I'm clean so I know it's possible.

When I see Bolt it gives me great hope for athletics because it both helps to restore the sport's credibility and create the magic that has been in short supply in recent years.