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Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt — Australia’s first curlers to qualify for the Olympics — may not have won a medal in China but they still manufactured the feelgood story of the Games.

From the depths of despair, they beat Switzerland 9-6 in their penultimate round robin match to claim their first win of the tournament after having nothing but rotten luck from the moment they got to China.

They were threatened with being kicked out of the mixed doubles competition even before it began when Gill tested positive to Covid on arrival at Beijing airport, through no fault of her own.

The result came from an old infection which China’s ultra sensitive testing system picked up but the Aussies were cleared to play in the nick of time when her next two daily samples both came back negative.

But that wasn’t the end of their cursed run, it was just the beginning.

They lost each of their first seven round-robin matches — four of them by a solitary point — ending their hopes of making the semi-finals.

Then just before their final matches on Sunday — their last shot of chalking up a consolation win before heading home — they got another kick in the guts.

Gill was notified she had tested positive again but there was not enough time left for her to produce the required two negative tests to play.

That meant they had to forfeit their last two games, against Switzerland and Canada, and Gill would have to relocate to a Covid isolation facility.

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) requested they be allowed to return home immediately, triggering an urgent meeting of Chinese officials which resulted in a spectacular backflip that worked in the Australians’ favour.

With no time to spare, the Medical Expert Panel reversed the ruling and told the Aussies to get themselves ready to play the Swiss.

Trailing 6-3 after five of the eight ends, it looked like being another lost cause. Then suddenly the Aussies went on a roll, scoring six unanswered points to pinch the win.

“We are thrilled for Tahli and Dean,” the Australian team chef de mission Geoff Lipshut said.

“I am delighted that our headquarters team continued pressing her case, after earlier advice that the pair could no longer compete.”

Wild story of Canuck-turned-Aussie’s bid to do a Bradbury

Not for the first time, Canada’s loss is Australia’s gain in winter sports.

If things had gone the way he planned, Brendan Corey might have been skating for Canada at the Beijing Olympics.

Instead, he’s competing for Australia, in the same short track event that Steven Bradbury famously won gold in two decades ago.

And Bradbury’s heir apparent is already through to Monday’s quarter-finals after breaking the Australian record in Saturday’s heats.

How he ended up representing Australia is as wild as the sport of track itself.

It wasn’t that long ago that Corey represented Canada at the junior world championships but he switched his allegiances to Australia after he was unfairly left off the national team and was offered a spot on the Australian team.

Currently ranked 11th in the world, he isn’t the first disgruntled Canadian to come to Australia looking for brighter things.

Dale Begg-Smith left the Great White North when he was a teenager and moved to the Snowy Mountains, then won gold in moguls at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

While Corey’s own family found some of the precious metal in Australia too, literally.

“My mother’s father is a gold miner,” Corey told News Corp. “He helped develop the Plutonic mine, which is one of the largest mines in Western Australia.

“He’s a dual citizen. And my mother grew up in Australia too. So to get the chance to wear the green and gold at the Olympics means so much to my family. I’m so excited.”

Ranked 11th in the world for the 1,000m race, Corey is Australia’s lone representative in short track speed skating.

When Bradbury won his first Olympic medal, a bronze at Lillehammer in 1994, Australia had an entire relay team, but those days have long gone.

For Corey, part of the lure of switching allegiances to Australia was to rebuild the program.

“I was too young at the time to remember it but I’ve watched Steven’s race multiple times,” he said.

“I don’t think that a moment like that will ever happen again in short track but it reminds me that even on your lowest days when you think the world is against you, you just dig deeper and come back even stronger.”

Coincidentally, Corey did most of his training for Beijing in Salt Lake City, the Utah capital where Bradbury won Australia’s first Winter Olympic gold in 2002 after all his opponents in the final fell over.

When Corey made the team, Bradbury was one of the first people to congratulate him.

“He just wanted to reach out to personally congratulate me and say that he’s very proud of all the hard work and commitment I’ve shown,’ Corey said.

“He gave me some hints about what things I am doing well and some of the strengths that he saw in me that I will be able to use at the upcoming Games.”

The often forgotten part of Bradbury’s incredible victory is that years before his Olympic victory, he almost died after he collided with another skater at a World Cup meet in Montreal and was sliced open by his blade.

Corey also suffered a life-changing injury just after being selected on the Canadian national senior team when a teammate slipped over and collided with him.

He had suffered a concussion which ruled him out of selection but was never picked again.

“I was very upset at the time, I’m not going to lie,” he said.

“I did go through an appeal process, because I was really unhappy with the decision and felt like it was not a fair one.”

A chance meeting with Australian coach Richard Nizielski, who teamed up with Bradbury to win Olympic bronze in 1994, convinced Corey that his future was in green and gold so he jumped at the chance.

“Words can’t explain how I feel,” he said. “But this is just the start.

“This year was my first year on the World Cup so I went in with an underdog mentality and no pressure, and I think that helped me to achieve what I have this season.

“To be 11th in the world in my first year, I still can’t believe it and now I’ve been selected on the Olympic team. It’s just an incredible bonus.”

Is Australia’s long wait for Winter Olympic gold about to end?

It’s been 12 years since an Australian woman has claimed the biggest prize on snow and ice but there’s now renewed hope the drought could be over as early as Sunday night.

No-one’s counting their chickens yet because there’s absolutely no guarantees in extreme winter sports, where the tiniest slip can spell disaster but don’t anyone go to bed early because if Australia’s rising moguls star Jakara Anthony can stay on her skis she has a real shot at the podium.

Fourth on her Olympic debut four years ago when she was just a teenager, the Victorian is now entrenched among the best and most consistent performers and has already laid the challenge to her rivals since arriving in Beijing.

Showing no signs of nerves, she easily finished top of Thursday’s qualifiers after a breathtaking run down the bumpy course then declared she can do even better in Sunday’s three-stage final series.

“There has been a four-year build-up to this, so to finally get the chance to ski at the Olympic stadium was a phenomenal feeling,” she said.

“It was a really good run but there were some things I was happy with and things I definitely did better in training, so I definitely have a lot of room to improve on that.”

That’s a frightening prospect for her closest competitors, particularly France’s Perrine Laffont and Japan’s Anri Kawamura, but that counts for nothing because moguls is one of the most unforgiving of all the skiing disciplines as there are so many dangers.

Competitors not only have to navigate their way down the steep, bumpy slope as fast as they can but they also have to impress the judges with their technical ability on the turns, and wow them with their jumps.

That’s where the 23-year-old Anthony has an advantage over her rivals because she’s the only woman in the world who can nail a Cork 720 mute, one of the hardest tricks in moguls that involves a full flip with two rotations and a grab of the skis in mid-air.

But the Olympics creates more pressure than any event in the world so she’ll also have to do it when the heat is on, if she makes the final six where the medals will be decided by a single run.

It promises to be a white-knuckle ride because to be the very best, competitors need to take risks and push themselves to the absolute limit, both physically and mentally.

“We do all sorts of training, and strength is a really big one for us,” Anthony said.

“You’re taking a lot of impact in the moguls and on the jumps so you need to be as strong as you can, particularly in your legs.

“We do some aerobic training and we do anaerobic training.

“A run is about 30 seconds, so we really need to be working that lactate which is not fun.

“There’s a lot of other bits in between, some speedwork, tricks, everything really.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week said Australia was “considering” a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games in February next year, amid concerns over the safety of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai.

The United States on Monday announced a diplomatic boycott, citing human rights abuses, but the move will not stop US athletes from competing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian was asked about Mr Morrison’s comments on Monday.

“We have said on multiple occasions that the Beijing Winter Olympics is a grand gathering of global winter sports athletes and fans, rather than a platform for certain politicians’ political stunts,” he said.

“According to Olympic rules, dignitaries are invited by the National Olympic Committee to attend the Olympic Games. It is up to the NOC to decide whether to send invitations or not. The Olympic Charter explicitly stipulates that sports organisations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality, and opposes any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes.”

Mr Zhao noted that Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates has opposed a diplomatic boycott.

“Politicians calling for boycott are doing so for their own political interests and posturing,” he said. “In fact, no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the Olympics to be successfully held by Beijing.”

The press briefing was held prior to the announcement of the Biden administration’s boycott.

Asked to comment on the possibility, and on reports of a potential of a Japanese diplomatic boycott, Mr Zhao again said the Games were “not a stage for political posturing and manipulation” and threatened “countermeasures”.

“US politicians keep hyping a ‘diplomatic boycott’ without even being invited to the Games,” he said.

“This wishful thinking and pure grandstanding is aimed at political manipulation. It is a grave travesty of the spirit of the Olympic Charter, a blatant political provocation and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion Chinese people. It will only make the Chinese people and the world see clearly US politicians’ anti-China nature and hypocrisy.”

Mr Zhao said the US should “adopt a right attitude, act in accordance with the Olympic spirit of ‘together’, treat China’s concerns seriously, and avoid politicising sports”.

“It should stop hyping the so-called ‘diplomatic boycott’ of the Beijing Winter Games, lest it should affect bilateral dialogue and co-operation in important areas,” he said.

“If the US is bent on having its own way, China will take resolute countermeasures.”

Speaking to reporters on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration would not send any diplomatic or official representation given China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses”.

“The athletes on Team USA have our full support,” she said. “We will be behind them 100 per cent as we cheer them on from home.”

For months, the US government has been trying to find the best way to position itself with regard to the Winter Games, hosted from February 4-20, by a country it accuses of perpetrating “genocide” against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang – a province in northwest China.

Several human rights organisations have accused Beijing of having interned at least one million Muslims in Xinjiang in “re-education camps”.

Sending official representation to the Olympics would signal that, despite China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang”, the Games were “business as usual”, Ms Psaki said.

“And we simply can’t do that,” she continued.

The boycott was met with support on both sides of the political aisle in America but prompted a furious response from Chinese state media.

China Daily bureau chief Chen Weihua tweeted, “You’re not invited and not welcome, Mr Biden. Hope you will live long enough to see China boycotting Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028.”

frank.chung@news.com.au

— with AFP

The Taliban have in recent days capped a military victory that saw them bring a swift end to the 20-year war in the country.

Just two Para athletes from Afghanistan were scheduled to compete in the Games – taekwondo competitors Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli.

Khudadadi, 23, was to be the first woman ever to represent Afghanistan at the Paralympics.

But the IPC confirmed on Monday that with the Taliban takeover, the two athletes would no longer be able to travel to Japan.

“Regrettably NPC (National Paralympic Committee) Afghanistan will no longer participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games,” IPC spokesman Craig Spence said.

“Due to the serious ongoing situation in the country, all airports are closed and there is no way for them to travel to Tokyo.”

There was no word on whether the IPC had been asked to try to assist team members, or was making efforts to do so.

“We hope the team and officials remain safe and well during this difficult time,” Spence said.

Just one week ago, the two athletes were profiled on the IPC’s website, with the country’s chef de mission Arian Sadiqi saying the Games offered a chance to “deliver the message of coexistence for humanity”.

Australian Paralympian Kurt Fearnley tweeted: “Being a part of the International Paralympic family, you feel so connected & the world feels small. But I haven’t felt as distant and useless then when it comes to Zakia Khudadadi.”

Canadian Olympian Jill Moffatt posted: “Absolutely heartbreaking for Zakia Khudadadi and women in sport. This would’ve been such a historic moment. My heart goes to her and all of the women who are now facing a new reality.”

With Afghanistan firmly back under the control of the Taliban again, the world is anxiously waiting to see what the militant group plans to do with the nation.

It’s been 20 years since the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan after the US forced it to flee Kabul in 2001, due to the support it gave al-Qaeda following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Fears are growing the Taliban is already reintroducing its brutal way of life to Afghanistan.

There are reports Taliban fighters are going door-to-door in Kabul, searching for female journalists.

And Diversity Council Australia Director Mariam Veiszadeh, whose sister-in-law’s sister lives in Afghanistan, said she had heard reports of bashings.

READ MORE: Taliban ‘rape gangs’ hunting young girls

Peter Dutton has warned the Taliban “the world is watching” and Australia stands ready to act if terror takes hold in Afghanistan.

Mr Dutton challenged the Taliban to abandon its “barbaric” treatment of women and girls after regaining control of the war-torn country.

“The test is now on them and they need to perform,” he told the ABC on Tuesday night.

The defence minister also demanded allied forces be allowed to safely leave Afghanistan.

Experts have warned the situation in Afghanistan will be a “massive morale boost” for every jihadist on the planet.

Asked whether that suggested a new level of threat for Australia, Mr Dutton urged people to heed the words of US President Joe Biden.

“He was very clear that if another threat similar to al-Qaeda or to Osama bin Laden and the 9-11 attacks, if that manifests itself in Afghanistan … then the United States will strike,” Mr Dutton said.

“And so they should, and we would be supportive of them in disrupting any major terrorist attack, whether it was in the West or elsewhere.

“The United States has the ability in the air, on the ground, to conduct such an attack and people should be hearing that message loud and clear.”

– with Natalie Wolfe, NCA NewsWire & AFP

Mills on Friday night posted images from a hotel in Sydney as part of an Instagram stories barrage that showed his return home following the Boomers’ bronze-medal win in Tokyo.

Mills and his Boomers teammates have been celebrating in style since the win over Slovenia in the bronze-medal play-off — and were seen drinking beer off their medals during their final days of partying inside the Tokyo athletes village.

Video of the partying included a clip of Mills and teammates jigging to Men At Work’s Down Under anthem.

Now Mills has shown what came after the initial partying.

Mills flooded his Instagram stories with pics on Friday night of him bringing his bronze medal back home.

The snaps include a photo of a classy handwritten note Mills was given by an airline employee during the flight home from Tokyo.

The note was written on official Japan Airways stationary and it included a simple letter to thanks to the 33-year-old.

The handwritten note was one of several nice little touches Mills was able to experience on his flight from Tokyo to Sydney, which was clearly slightly more comfortable than what his fellow passengers would have enjoyed in cattle class.

“Congratulations on your bronze medal,” the note given to Mills read.

“We are glad to see you onboard today. Please take care of yourself and we are looking forward to seeing you again.”

Mills Instagram barrage included a series of photos being posted with captions of lyrics from the Seekers’ cult classic I Am Australian.

He is now serving his two weeks of quarantine in isolation in Sydney.

Last week, Mills signed a two-year, $16 million deal with NBA heavyweights the Brooklyn Nets, which will see him play alongside the likes of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving.

Mills will be hoping to add another NBS championship ring to hang alongside that bronze medal

But somehow, a moth managed to steal the show.

The insect was spotted hovering around the Olympic symbol underneath President of the Olympic Games Hashimoto Seiko as she thanked the athletes.

The curious bug distracted several viewers watching from home and quickly became one of the event’s biggest stars.

Social media was flooded with debate on whether it was a moth or a cicada, with a parody Twitter account quickly accumulating followers.

Comparisons were immediately drawn to the moth that pestered football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo during the Euro 2016 final and the insect that stuck to Yvonne Kenny’s dress during the Sydney Games in 2000.

Hilarious footage of a man attempting to swat away the insect off-camera also went viral.

Protesters arrive with the dumbest message

Earlier, a group of protesters marred the closing ceremony in Tokyo, gathering outside the Olympic Stadium with a bizarre message.

One hour ahead of the closing ceremony, Japanese locals were heard chanting, “Cancel the Olympics!”

Signs in the horde read “Olympics kill the poor” and “Stop playing games”.

Police quickly grouped around the peaceful protesters, with media also flooding the scene.

The protest seemed relatively pointless considering the Games are essentially over, with the final event ending several hours earlier.

However, Tokyo remains in a state of emergency with thousands of new Covid-19 cases being announced every day.

A poll conducted by news.com.au found that approximately 82 per cent of our readers were glad the Tokyo Olympics went ahead despite the Covid-19 outbreak, while a further 10 per cent were undecided.

Only eight per cent were unhappy the Games went ahead.

How to closing ceremony unfolded

As anticipated, a large portion of the closing ceremony was prerecorded, featuring highlights from the past two weeks of action.

After some fireworks burst from the Olympic Stadium and filled the Tokyo skyline, the Japanese flag was marched around the venue.

The Japanese national anthem then echoed around the Olympic Stadium as the flag was raised by members of the Japan Self Defence Forces.

An athlete from each nation then completed a lap of the venue, with champion sailor Mathew Belcher earning the illustrious responsibility of holding the Aussie flag.

The Parade of Nations followed, but numbers were noticeably fewer than what we saw at the opening ceremony.

Olympic athletes have been required to leave Tokyo within 48 hours after their last event, meaning most of Australia’s stars are already back Down Under completing their mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Ashley Moloney, who won a bronze medal in the decathlon earlier this week, was seen carrying an Australian teammate on his shoulders.

“He’s done the 10 events and now he’s doing the shoulder carry for the Closing Ceremony,” Channel 7 commentator Hamish McLachlan said.

Johanna Griggs continued: “Hasn’t he done enough? He’d be a bit tired. He’s having the time of this life.”

And it wasn’t long before the blown-up boxing kangaroo made an appearance as well.

Following a gorgeous light show, the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra performed a couple of catchy tunes accompanied by a dance crew.

But the music took a couple of unexpected turns when a DJ on the turntable took centre stage before a polka rendition of Beethoven’s iconic “Ode to Joy”.

As is tradition, the national anthem of Greece played around the Olympic Stadium before the victors of the men’s and women’s marathons were awarded their medals.

The thousands of hard-working volunteers were then honoured for their invaluable contribution to the Tokyo Games.

Following a Taiko drumming and dancing performance, the Indigenous Japanese population were honoured in a pre-recorded clip.

The Olympic flag handover took place soon after, with Tokyo Mayor Yuriko Koike passing the flag to IOC President Thomas Bach who in turn passed it to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

After speeches from President of the Olympic Games Hashimoto Seiko and President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach, the Olympic flame was extinguished.

What’s the closing ceremony theme?

The concept of the ceremony was “Worlds We Share” following the opening ceremony’s which was “Moving Forward”, and the Games’ concept “United By Emotion”.

“Even if we cannot be together, we can share the same moment, and that is something that we will never forget,” a statement released ahead of the ceremony read.

“It is this salient message which we believe will create a closing ceremony that will open the door to a brighter future. We hope that this ceremony may be a moment for each and every one of us to think about what the future holds.”

It added how the concept “Worlds We Share” was chosen to express the idea “that each of us inhabits their own world”.

McDermott, who became the first Aussie to jump 2m at the Australian National Championships in April, flew past her record to set a new Oceania mark at 2.02m.

She jumped 1.98m and 2m on her first attempts to sit in first place, but her first miss at 2.02m was enough to drop her into second as three-time world champion Mariya Lasitskene came home strong to claim gold.

The Russian star cleared a best of 2.04m and McDermott couldn’t quite match her.

McDermott established herself as a new national hero by winning Australia’s fifth ever high jump medal at an Olympics, becoming the first woman to do since Michele Brown, who won silver 57 years ago in 1964, also in Tokyo.

Australia was asking one main question throughout the final as McDermott sat down with her journal at the end of every single jump. The unusual tactic helped deliver her a silver medal as she jumped higher than any other Australian woman in history.

McDermott later explained what she had written in her journal, revealing that she rated each of her jumps.

“The high jump is one of the hardest events, stealing the clearance. I did not watch the replay of it, but I felt that I had it,” McDermott said of her 2.04m attempt that was oh so close.

“But that is really giving me a hunger for more and I was rating myself and I thought there is still room to work. We are competing in Europe in two weeks’ time and yep, we are getting it.

“I was giving myself a rating out of 10 for every single component of the jump. By the last time, that was my highest, I gave myself 10 out of 10 but I still had work to do.

“Writing on a T-shirt is another process of my athletics processing. I was writing each time I jumped a bar, it allowed me to zone off and go, ‘What do I need to work on?’ rather than get carried away by the emotion because after I cleared the 2m it was tempting to back off.

“But I just kept going and going because I knew I had things to work on.”

McDermott had another secret weapon that saw her step onto the Olympic podium – her coach of 14 years Matt Horsell.

She paid tribute to the man she credited with helping her reach some lofty heights.

“For Matt, he was a local coach, he rose every time I rose. Every time I went overseas he came with me,” McDermott said. “He has now become one of the most well renowned coaches because of his humility, his encouragement and passion. He still has a day job, he is not a full-time coach.

“We fit it in around his work because as athletes we do not make wages and stuff. We have to do what we do. He has been the most passionate and encouraging person. I think this medal is just a drop in the ocean of really what he is capable of. I am so proud.”

McDermott is Australia’s new golden girl of athletics and she said she felt the country willing her on despite the relatively empty stadium.

As a woman of faith with “Jesus” written on her wrist, she said she hoped she could inspire people.

“I am going after the gold in Paris, I am going to keep putting in 100 per cent because this is just like a little bit of encouragement for one person watching, that anything is possible when you have faith then I have done my job today,” McDermott said.

“As a teenager, I was always an outcast, and I got welcomed into a faith community that loved me. I remember encountering God’s love and it changed the way that I thought of

myself as a misfit.

“It gave me passion and purpose, and I think in 2017, it was my big moment when it flicked a switch, and I decided to pursue God over sport and whatever comes with sport is a bonus. But I am already complete and perfect in love regardless of it.

“That has just allowed me to soar over every high jump bar and not be scared anymore. Because I am loved. That is the most important thing.”

Four-time Olympian Gong Lijiao won the first ever field gold medal for her country on Sunday after an incredible personal best of 20.58m in the women’s shot put final.

But in an interview that aired on China’s state-owned network CCTV following her victory, a sports correspondent asserted: “Gong Lijiao gives me the impression of a masculine woman.”

Reporter Lu You then proceeded to question Lijiao about her appearance.

“You used to be a masculine woman for the sake of shot-put. But moving forward, can you be yourself?” she asked.

The 32-year-old hesitantly responded, saying perhaps she would consider a different lifestyle in the future when she wasn’t focused on her sport.

“If I don’t train later on, then maybe I will lose weight, and then get married and have kids,” she said.

“The path one must walk in life.”

Lijiao was further pressed on whether she had a boyfriend, what she looked for in a partner, and who would win in an arm wrestle between her and a prospective partner.

The segment infuriated viewers, who took their revolt to popular Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

A discussion topic, named “Is marriage the only thing we can discuss about women?”, centred on the uncomfortable interview, was read 360 million times, and generated 161 posts.

The reporter’s line of inquiry was largely condemned, with Weibo users arguing their were far more interesting things to discuss than a woman’s potential to get married.

One went as far as to label the reporter’s questions “disgusting”, while others likened them to what one might expect from an intrusive relative.

The reach of the discussion was so broad it attracted the attention of Lijiao herself, who left a comment sharing that she agreed the questioning was inappropriate.

“This completely says what I’m thinking!” she wrote from her official Weibo account.

“Thank you!”

Moloney entered the final 1500m event in third place as he sought to claim’s Australia’s first ever Olympic medal in the 10-part event. He finished the run 12th in a time of 4:39.19 and it was just enough to sneak home for bronze.

“F*** yeah!” Moloney screamed as he embraced countryman Cedric Dubler at the finish line.

The 21-year-old — establishing himself as the new pin-up boy of Australian athletics — ran a personal best in the 1500m but when he crossed the line several seconds slower than his nearest competitors there were fears Moloney may have slipped out of the medals at the death.

The Queenslander was just 62 points ahead of fourth-placed Garret Scantling going into the 1500m and while the American was quicker with a time of 4:35.54, Moloney still finished within a close enough range to ensure he remained in the top three.

Canada’s Pierce LePage (fifth) was also threatening to push Moloney off the podium in the final race but the Aussie superstar held on for dear life and because he finished within nine seconds of the North American pair, he secured his slice of history.

It took several minutes after runners had crossed the line for the final scores to register on big screens inside the Olympic Stadium before it was confirmed Moloney had won enough points in the last event to walk away with the bronze medal.

He finished with 8649 points – just 38 points ahead of Scantling. Canada’s Damian Warner won comfortably with 9018 points.

Teammate’s selfless act is an ‘iconic image’

Dubler finished 21st overall but deserves a share of Moloney’s bronze for the way he spurred his training partner on during the final leg. Knowing he was out of medal contention, Dubler sacrificed his own race and ran alongside Moloney to act as a pacer, yelling encouragement and spurring his mate on.

“He had me worried for a little bit then I just started screaming at him and we got him there,” Dubler told Channel 7 after the race.

Moloney opened up on how important his countryman’s help was in delivering him a special souvenir to bring home from Tokyo.

“He was screaming. I can’t repeat what he said. I could hear his voice bouncing in my cranium like a bat out of hell,” Moloney said.

“I started hitting a wall at 800m and I was a bit concerned but I was like, ‘Just stick to Cedric. Don’t let him get to far away’. He screamed … like a nutter.”

Dubler’s selflessness didn’t go unnoticed by Channel 7 commentators Bruce McAvaney and Tamsyn Manou.

“He has been able to help Ash mentally and now physically right to the end,” McAvaney said.

Manou added: “He has been fabulous. He sacrificed his own event here just to help his teammate.”

Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze called Dubler’s sacrifice a “thing of beauty”, while Seven host Andy Maher said: “We will look back, I reckon when the books shut on Tokyo and you look at the Olympic Games and there are snapshot images, iconic images from an Olympic Games. Dubler screaming into Moloney’s ear is going to be one of those two or three-second images that all of those great motivational pieces we get put together with beautiful music, it is going to be one of those pieces.”

Australian cricket great Lisa Sthalekar agreed, adding: “That’s going to be the iconic image … and it should be.”

Moloney dropped a personal best in the 110m hurdles to start Thursday’s action and although discus isn’t his strongest suit, was still only one spot off the leader after his throw of 4.38m.

Moloney cleared 5m in the pole vault and hit a season-best when he launched his javelin 57.12m, but many of his rivals performed better in the penultimate event. Kevin Mayer’s monster 73m throw saw him go from fourth to second.

Moloney was in the bronze medal position going into the final 1500m event and held on to create Australian history.

The young gun performed strongly on Wednesday in the opening day of the decathlon. He finished in a personal best time of 10.34 seconds in the 100m and easily won his 400m heat, hit 7.64m in the long jump and soared to top spot in his high jump group with a leap of 2.11m.

The 17-year-old sensation has been earmarked as the successor to Bolt’s 200m Olympic crown but he won’t be wearing it in Tokyo.

Knighton pulled out a sensational run in the 200m final but it wasn’t enough to earn him a medal, as he finished fourth in a time of 19.93 seconds.

Canadian veteran Andre De Grasse, who finished second to Bolt in this event in Rio five years ago, claimed gold in a sizzling 19.62s, while Americans Kenneth Bednarek (19.68s) and Noah Lyles (19.74s) were second and third respectively to round out the podium.

There’s still plenty of upside for Knighton though. To make the Olympics in the first place — let alone qualify for a final — at 17 is a remarkable achievement, and the only way is up for the freakishly talented teenager.

He’ll take plenty of heart from his performance not just in the final but across all his performances in Japan. Knighton won his seat and semi-final and will be an even scarier proposition for rival sprinters come the 2024 Games in Paris.

Can Knighton fill Usain Bolt-sized void?

Knighton put himself on the map with a stunning 200m run at an American Track League event in June. All eyes were on Trayvon Bromell in the final but the teenage phenomenon exploded down the home straight to finish in 20.11 seconds.

It saw him topple Bolt’s Under-18 world record of 20.13 for the 200m, set all the way back in 2003. And Knighton wasn’t done there.

He became the youngest runner to qualify for an American track and field team since 1964 at the recent US Olympic trials, surpassing another of Bolt’s world records in the process. The Jamaican held the mark for fastest 200m time by an under-20 competitor until Knighton crossed the line in 19.84 seconds in Oregon, better than the Jamaican’s best of 19.93 seconds before he turned 20.

Remarkably, Knighton has only been running seriously for a couple of years, after making the switch from football.

“When it comes to filling the void of Usain Bolt, I think one of the most attractive opportunities is a kid in the 200m from America called Erriyon Knighton, who was the third fastest qualifier for the US team,” former Aussie sprinter Matt Shirvington told news.com.au before the track action got underway in Japan.

“But he is a teenager, 17, and he’s run faster than Usain Bolt has at the same age. For me, you’re looking at someone who could end up walking away a superstar, who’s on the rise. I think Erriyon Knight’s a really, really great shout.”