Mo Farah overcame a fall to become the first British athlete to win three Olympic gold medals as he retained his 10,000m crown.
Just as Lasse Viren did in Munich in 1972, Farah picked himself up to progress to gold and will now look to emulate The Flying Finn by becoming only the second man to successfully defend the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m.
Farah had enough left to sprint away in the final 80m to win in 27:05.17 from Kenya's Paul Kipngetich Tanui (27:05.64) and Ethiopian Tamirat Tola (27:06.26) to maintain his record of not losing a major 10,000m race since 2011.
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'It is never an easy thing when you know you have got a target on your back. When I fell down, for a moment I thought my race was over, my dream was over but then I managed to dig deep,' said Farah, 33, as he reflected on an unintentional clip from his training partner Gallen Rupp.
'As each lap went down, I was getting more and more confident. With the bell, I was thinking ‘just don’t waste too much energy’. I didn’t know what some of the others could do, so I just wanted to make sure I had something at the end.'
Tanui went past him on the back straight but Farah did not panic. He knew he had that bit left, and delivered with a trademark kick to complete the first half of his aim here in Rio of matching the feats of Viren from Montreal in 1976.
It was there that Viren retained the titles he had won in Munich four years earlier. In Germany he had fallen on the 12th lap of the 10,000m but picked himself up to win gold and break the world record.
Farah's success remains amazing, having won the 5000m and 10,000m at the last two world championships and at the 10,000m at the 2014 European Athletics Championships since his glory in London.
He will be back on the track on Wednesday for the heats of the 5000m before the final on Saturday and he is ready to make more history.
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As always, wherever Farah was in the field, the others could not settle. He was in the middle of the pack when he fell with 16 laps left, but once he moved his way through, the pace increased.
At the bell, it seemed like it might not be his night as Tanui looked smooth and Tola was closing in. Farah was in the middle of the two with 250m left, glancing behind, before finally striking the front when it mattered.
Thank everyone back home.....!!! Love you guys......!!! Shabba.....!! pic.twitter.com/S9ofPwffJu
— Mo Farah (@Mo_Farah) August 14, 2016
As Farah won the 10,000m in London, fellow Briton Greg Rutherford was in the middle of his golden moment as he triumphed in the long jump.
And while there was no repeat on Saturday, there was still a medal for the Briton as he won bronze with 8.29m from the last round as American Jeff Henderson (8.38m) took gold from South African Luvo Manyonga (8.37m).
Double European champion Rutherford started with 8.18m and prior to his finale, had a best of 8.26m from round four and said: 'It’s frustrating. Ultimately I did not jump long enough today which is difficult for me to take. But it is what it is I guess, I have just got to make do and move on from that.'
The last individual final of the night was the women's 100m where the Netherlands' double European champion Dafne Schippers ran 10.90 as she finished fifth in a race won by Jamaican Elaine Thompson in 10.71.
Schippers will now concentrate on the 200m, where she is the world champion.
Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie made it through qualifying of the pole vault with 5.70m at the second attempt, Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith reached the 400m final after a 44.48 personal best for second in his semi-final and Poland's Marcin Lewandowski is in the 800m final after a season's best 1:44.56 saw him progress.
Greece's Paraskevi Papahristou reached the triple jump final with 14.43m, the best by a European, and in the 400m, Libania Grenot, who retained her European crown last month, is into semis after running a 51.17.