INTERNATIONAL: It was an early start on Day 14 of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics on Friday morning. At 5.30am local time, the starter pistol was fired for the men’s 50km race walk and residents of Sapporo took full advantage of the cooler temperatures to watch what was an historic event.

The event was moved from Tokyo to escape the capital’s heatwave, but even at 5.30 in the morning, the mercury in Sapporo had already climbed to 31 degrees. Race-walking has always been an oddity of the Olympics and Friday’s event was its last. The event is being shelved as an Olympic sport. It will not feature at Paris 2024. So the final gold medal for the men’s 50km race walk went to Poland’s Dawid Tomala in a time of three hours, 50 minutes and 8 seconds. He’ll go down in history as the event’s last winner.

Poland is in 17th place on the medals table. It’s been China’s games – still dominating the top spot with a total of 34 golds and 74 medals in all. The United States remains 2nd with a total of 91 medals, 29 of them gold. Japan has had a great time as host city – enjoying third place on the medals table all week. Australia lies in fourth place, with the Russian Olympic Committee in 5th. Russia cannot compete under its country name because of the 2012 doping scandal.