London, Aug 10 (IANS): Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt has created Olympic history by becoming the first man to win the 100 and 200 metres in successive games.

Bolt Thursday night ran the 200 metres in 19.32 seconds to finish ahead of fellow countrymen Yohan Blake, like he did in the 100 metres Sunday, and Wallace Weir at the London Games to become the first man to win the two sprint titles in back-to-back Olympics, reports Xinhua.

Surely nobody can question his status as the greatest sprinter in history.

"It's what I came here to do. I'm now a legend," Bolt said.

Bolt had complained of slipping on the blocks as he won the 100 metres, but he got off to a flying start in 200 metres, springing out of the blocks and running an excellent bend.

To his credit, Blake, who ran 19.44 seconds, was still in contention as they came off the bend and for a moment it looked as if he could close. But Bolt is Bolt and he maintained a lead of just over a metre which he stretched out in the closing strides, looking across to Blake as if to say "I'm still number one".

Blake finished 0.4 second ahead of Weir to highlight that at almost any other time he would be a great champion and maybe one day he will be, but for the moment, Bolt is the king of sprinting.

Earlier in a magnificent night, Kenya's Lekuta Rudisha set the first new world record of the London Games when he won the 800 metres in one minute 40.91 seconds.

Rudisha went into the race after having run five of the 10 fastest times in history and made a statement of intent right from the start, running a split time of 49.28 to open up a lead that he never looked like relinquishing.

The Kenyan powered out a five-metre lead as the field strung out around the final bend as his rivals were quite unable to live with the pace.

"I'm very happy. I've waited for this moment for a very long time. To come here and get a world record is unbelievable. I had no doubt about winning. Today the weather was beautiful, I decided to go for it (the world record)," he said, after completing a win that the Chairman of the London Olympic Games Organising Committee, Sebastian Coe, one of the great middle distance runners himself, described as one of the greatest Olympic moments.

"Lord Coe is a good friend of mine. I came here in February and he took me around the stadium. I wanted to come here and make him proud," said Rudisha.

Nijel Amos, 18, finished second to take a silver and make a new world junior record, while Timothy Kitum ran a personal best of one minute 42.73 seconds to win bronze.

Such was the speed of the race that all but one of the runners set a new personal best with Mohammed Aman finishing sixth and still setting a new national record for Ethiopia.

Great Britain's Andrew Osagie finished last and still managed to knock 0.7 seconds of his best time and set the fastest losing time ever in an Olympic final.

In men's triple jump final, reigning world champion Christian Taylor just managed to make the final three jumps of the competition. Taylor produced two no-jumps, before leaping 17.15 metres to go through. His fourth jump of 17.81 metres was the longest in the world this year and took him into the lead and it would give him gold at the end of the competition.

Will Claye earned silver with a consistent set of jumps, of which the longest was 17.62 metres, while consistency was also the watchword for Italy's Fabrizio Donato who also produced a consistent series of which a jump of 17.48 metres won him bronze.

World record holder Barbora Spotakova lived up to her top billing with a throw of 69.55 metres to win gold in women's javelin.

Spotakova's throw was over four metres longer than that of Germany's Christiana Obergfoll, who threw 65.16, while another German, Linda Stahl took bronze with 64.91 metres.

"I didn't even dare to think about it in this competition. I didn't realise it but it will come tomorrow," said the Russian, whose only disappointment was that her event was the last of the day, starting after Bolt's heroics had ended.

"It was a really strange competition this evening. The stadium was half-empty but the atmosphere was great. And these Olympic Games are the biggest experience for athletes," she said.