AUSTRALIA has its first medal on the track - to long jumper Mitchell Watt - but in keeping with the theme of these Games it was not the expected colour.

Watt went into the Games as gold medal favourite, but left the Olympic Stadium with a silver as once again Britain proved superior, with Greg Rutherford taking gold with a leap of 8.31m.



The Australian record holder struggled early in the competition before getting 8.13m on his fifth jump to move into second position. He could only improve that by 3cm with his last attempt.



It is the second consecutive silver medal for Watt, who was second at last year's world championships in Daegu.



Watt will be shattered given the gold medal jump was the lowest in distance since the 1972 Munich Olympics where American Randy Williams won in 8.24m.

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The 24-year-old never really looked comfortable at any time in the competition and only registered three jumps with his best 38cm off his national record set last year.



He ran through on his first, got a solid 7.97m on his second to ensure he continued in the competition, but then fouled his third and fourth jumps.



Rutherford produced his gold medal leap on his fourth attempt, which had the 80,000 fans in the stadium going nuts. American Will Claye took the bronze medal with 8.12m.



Watt rated his best attempt as the 8.13m he jumped in the fifth round just as local heroine Jessica Ennis was passing by the long jump pit in the concluding round of the heptathlon, sending the capacity crowd into a frenzy.



"I just pretended I was British for about 30 seconds so I have to thank Jess for that," said Watt, who professed himself much more satisfied with this silver medal than his runner-up effort at last year's world championships, when he was battling an injured heel.



"I haven't had the perfect season, I've had to be pretty cautious with everything I've done.



"In saying that, I felt good tonight, my warm-up was good.



"I think that's why I'm a lot happier, because I gave it all I had."



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Rutherford's win was Britain's second of three gold medals at the track and took the host nation's tally to 14 overall.



By contrast, Australia has just one gold along with 12 silvers.



"An Olympic gold medal is bloody hard to get," Watt said.



"All the sports are becoming extremely competitive and more globalised.



"There are 210 countries here and if people can't realise that a silver medal is a great achievement then there's something wrong with them."



Watt has only been long jumping seriously for three years, having previously dropped out of track and field in his early teens.



"I didn't even watch the Beijing long jump - I was sitting on my couch and I had no aspirations to be an Olympian," he said.



"It's been a pretty crazy four years and to be honest I think Greg deserved to win.



"He was pretty consistent.



"He's my best friend on the circuit, we spend a lot of time together and I'm extremely happy for him."



Watt's training partner Henry Frayne missed continuing on in the final after three jumps because he was ranked ninth - only the top eight continue - with a best leap of 7.85m.



Meanwhile, distance runner Mo Farah won the 10,000m to give Britain three gold medals in track and field in about one hour.



The Somali-born Farah kicked away from a big pack coming into the final straight and won in 27:30.42, holding off American training partner Galen Rupp (27:30.90), who took silver in 27:30.90.



Tariku Bekele finished in 27:31.43 to pick up bronze for Ethiopia.



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Originally published as Watt leaps short of gold