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Tokyo 2020 recap: Four best athletes

The rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympics will go down in Games history as one of the best, considering the challenging circumstances under which it was held as the threat of COVID-19 pandemic loomed large.

Neeraj Chopra

Bengaluru, August 10: So the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is finally done and dusted and the baton has been now passed on to Paris 2024.

The already one-year rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympics will go down in Games history as one of the best, if not the best, considering the unprecedented circumstances under which it was held as the threat of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic loomed large throughout the event.

The potential threat of a tropical storm and typhoon also gave headache for organisers, who much to their credit, conducted the event with gusto.

The track and field events, which is the main attraction in every Olympics for that matter, as usual garnered lot of interest this time.

Athletics the biggest winner at Tokyo 2020Athletics the biggest winner at Tokyo 2020

As per a data provided by the sport's global governing body -- World Athletics -- 83 teams reached finals in athletics events at Tokyo 2020, highlighting the global reach of the sport, with 43 teams featuring on the medal podium and 23 of those winning gold.

For 12 teams -- Bahamas, Bahrain, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Grenada, Jamaica, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Puerto Rico and Uganda -- athletics was their pathway to the Olympic podium.

Over ten days of athletics competition, three world records, 12 Olympic records, 28 area records and 151 national records were set in these history-making Games at the Japanese capital city.

While seasoned campaigners re-asserted their class in the track and field events, new stars were born. Here myKhel.com picks four best athletes from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj became a hero in India as he claimed his country's first Olympic medal in athletics and a gold at that.

The 23-year-old led the javelin final from start to finish. With his first throw, he hurled the spear 87.03M, a distance that would prove good enough for the gold medal. However he found, even more power on his second attempt (87.58M) and no-one could match him.

Elaine Thompson-Herah

Elaine Thompson-Herah

The Jamaican proved yet again that she is the queen of track after clinching a hat-trick of gold medals including the sprint double to take her overall tally in Olympics to five following her sprint double at Rio 2016.

Having already taken out the 100 and 200M in the individual races at Tokyo 2020, Thompson-Herah combined with the legendary Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Briana Williams and Shericka Jackson to take the gold in 4x100M relay in a blistering 41.02sec, the second-fastest time ever run.

Lamont Marcell Jacobs

Lamont Marcell Jacobs

The Italian stunned the field claimed an historic gold medal in men's 100M final, the blue riband event of Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The first from his nation to reach the final at the Games, Jacobs won in a time of 9.80sec, breaking the European record he set in the semifinal. It was double delight for Jacobs, who was also later part of Italy's 4x100 Relay winning quartet.

Sydney McLaughlin

Sydney McLaughlin

The American youngster, who was the pre-race favourite, broke her own world record to take 400M hurdles gold in 51.46sec.

The 22-year-old had recently broken the 400M hurdles record when she won the US Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon in 51.90sec, becoming the first woman to finish the event in under 52sec and had set her eyes firmly on an Olympic gold, which she did in some style.

Her feat was one of the three new records broken during Tokyo 2020.

Story first published: Tuesday, August 10, 2021, 10:55 [IST]
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