By Andy Schooler, in Manchester

For those in the press centre at the City of Manchester Stadium on Wednesday night it was hard to concentrate.

If it wasn't the crowd roaring, it was the sound of Land of Hope and Glory blasting out of the loud speakers.

First Kelly Holmes, then Ashia Hansen, Steve Backley, two relay teams – even Mike East. Who on earth was Mike East?

What was the angle for tomorrow's papers? As long as it says mentions England and gold, who cared?

The final night of athletics in this great venue was one which will go down in the memory, that is for sure.

The builders move in again on Monday. The athletics track will be ripped out and taken, in the main, south to Birmingham.

But the memories of what has happened on the tartan will reverberate around Manchester, and indeed Britain, for years to come.

Much had been written about the effect the crowd would have in the 38,000 capacity venue even before the Games had started.

But even the journalists here have not tired of asking the athletes just how special the fans have been.

In a world in which the media demand fresh stories, that is testament enough to what has happened in the stadium.

Such support has not been seen in Britain at an athletics meet in the past – and sadly questions are already beginning to arise about whether they will ever be seen again. But that debate can be delayed another day.

`Super Sunday' which saw Jonathan Edwards, Paula Radcliffe and Mick Jones all strike gold will bring comparisons with `Magnificent Monday' at the Sydney Olympics.

That was the day when 110,000 roared Cathy Freeman to 400m glory. I was not there, but some of the noise created here has been compared to that which graced Stadium Australia. The support has certainly been vocal. Unless you've been here, it really is hard to put across just how vocal.

And then came Wonderful Wednesday. At the start of writing this article I thought it could not be the same as Sunday, or even Monday when Manchester-born Darren Campbell grabbed an emotional bronze to end two years of injury misery.

But as the events went by, my thoughts were rewritten.

The night began with receptions fit for a king, the likes of ageing John Mayock in the men's 1500m receiving a rapturous reception.

After Holmes had brought everyone to their feet, Hansen's performance lifted things to a new level.

The early pacesetter in the triple jump had seen her lead wrestled from her by Francoise Mbango's final leap.

Cue the crowd. Noise levels seemed to hit new heights as Hansen bounded out to 14.86m – the fourth Games record of the competition.

It was the equivalent of Shaun Goater hitting an injury-time winner in this stadium which is to be handed over to Manchester City FC next year.

Then again comparisons with Goater are perhaps not the kindest for Hansen.

From there things went crazy.

Darren Campbell carried home the sprint relay team to complete a dream victory. East came from way back to surge to 1500 gold in the home straight.

And the curtain was brought down by a tremendous 4x400m relay.

A brilliant run by Matt Elias saw the Welshmen have that winning feeling in his photo finish with Daniel Caines.

But who was Elias kidding? On this night, there was only one team who was to get such a decision. It proved the high point in a mountain range of achievement.

A night when a Cathy Freeman gold medal is overshadowed is a special one indeed.

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