INTERNATIONAL: What must be the oddest Olympic Games in history finally came to a close on Sunday night. The Tokyo 2020 games were held a year late, in a city under a state of emergency and with no spectators, all because of the pandemic, but they closed in spectacular style.

A volley of multi-coloured fireworks lit up the night sky over Tokyo on Sunday. Broadcasting rights being what they are, that was all we could televise of the closing ceremony. Perhaps fitting, considering that these were games very much held behind closed doors. What did go on in the stadium during the closing ceremony was a park-scene, complete with grass, buskers and BMX riders. Organisers says it was meant to let the athletes "experience Tokyo," as they’d spent most of their time in the Olympic bubble.

And the Olympic bubble has already burst for Japan. It’s been left with a $15-billion bill and no real prospect of a tourism boom to help off-set it. But at least the athletes made off with some money in the form of medals. The US beating China to the top of the medals table on the very last day of the games, finishing with 113 medals in all, 39 of them gold. Japan, Great Britain and the Russian Olympic Committee rounding out the top five. While our athletes did set new records for themselves in Tokyo, Cambodia’s hunt for its first-ever Olympic medal will now need to wait until Paris 2024.