GREG Rutherford has had plenty of people approach him in the wake of his Olympic long jump title – but mainly because they've thought he was the pop star Ed Sheeran.

Rutherford secured Great Britain's second athletics gold medal of 'Super Saturday' when he triumphed in the Olympic Stadium on the middle weekend of the Games.

The 25-year-old went into the Olympics with the longest leap of 2012 to his name, yet remained something of an unknown beyond the athletics community.

His profile was transformed in an instant when he jumped 8.31m to claim gold, and he will receive a rapturous reception when he competes on the banks of the River Tyne in the Great North City Games this afternoon.

He is gradually getting used to public attention, although his resemblance to Sheeran means he is never quite sure if any interest is actually intended for him.

“People come up to me, but I keep on wondering if they think I'm Ed Sheeran,” said Rutherford. “I'm always trying to stay one step ahead of them and suss out if they actually know who I am. It's amazing though and it's so nice.

“It's nice for people to come up and say, 'Well done for doing something good' rather than just be known for being someone off Big Brother or something like that.”

It is not just ordinary members of the public who are recognising Rutherford either – earlier this month, he found himself face to face with James Bond.

“I was in a hotel the other day and Roger Moore was in there,” he said, wide-eyed with excitement. “We had a chat and that was really weird. He came up and said congratulations to me, although I think he'd probably been prepped. The guy in the restaurant took me over there and it was fantastic.

“It's weird. You never imagine people you think of as famous sitting there and watching sport, but I suppose they do like everybody else. When you see these guys and they congratulate you, you're bowled over by the fact that they've watched you in action.”

Thousands of North-Easterners will be watching him compete today, and Rutherford feels the City Games format, which sees a British team take on the United States in nine different events on the Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside, is a perfect way to introduce athletics to a wider audience.

“It's a fantastic way to end the year,” he said. “It's accessible to everyone in the area – nobody has to pay a penny – and I think there should be a lot more events like this to really ramp up the interest and excitement.

“I suppose it's our sport's equivalent of Twenty20 cricket, and you can see what that has done there. If you could get that going in track and field it would be brilliant.

“You don't need a big stadium, you don't need all of these millions spent – you just need a bit of track and a sand pit and you can do it and show people what it's like close up and how much fun it is.”