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TOKYO — The Tokyo 2020 Games were declared closed by International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach on Sunday, ending the “most challenging Olympic journey” after a year’s pandemic delay and threats of cancellation.

Bach called them “unprecedented Olympic Games” as he addressed the 68,000-seat Olympic Stadium, which was bereft of fans as Japan battles to contain a record coronavirus outbreak.

“In these difficult times we are all living through, you give the world the most precious of gifts: hope,” the IOC president told athletes at the ceremony.

“And now I have to mark the end of this most challenging Olympic journey to Tokyo: I declare the Games of the 32nd Olympiad closed,” he added.

It marked a low-key end to an extraordinary Olympics that have mostly played out in empty venues with only athletes, team officials and media present.

Athletes have lived in strict biosecure conditions with social distancing at the Olympic Village and instructions to wear masks unless eating, sleeping, training or competing.

Bach has described how the IOC considered cancelling the Olympics and claiming the costs on its insurance policy but said officials ploughed ahead with holding the Games “for the athletes”.

“Some were already speaking of ‘Ghost Games’,” he told an IOC session earlier on Sunday. 

“What we have seen here is that on the contrary the athletes have brought soul to the Olympic Games.”

On Sunday, the climax of the biggest sports event since the pandemic, Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge won the men’s marathon and the USA edged China at the top of the medals table.

The United States scored victories in volleyball, track cycling and basketball to top the tally with 39 gold medals, just one ahead of China.

The Olympics were plagued by low Japanese support as they went ahead with Tokyo and other regions under a state of emergency and with infections multiplying to new highs.

But Japan’s record haul of 27 golds to finish third on the table has won hearts. Britain were fourth with 22 and the Russian Olympic Committee, the team for Russian athletes after their country was banned for systematic doping, were fifth with 20.

“We believe our athletes’ earnest spirit and all-out performance moved people,” said Tsuyoshi Fukui, chef de mission for the Japanese team.

A succession of big names have failed to perform in Japan, where new sports skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing and karate have brought young new stars to the fore.

But marathon world record holder Kipchoge showed his class, kicking in the closing stages and clocking 2hr 08min 38sec to retain the title he won in 2016.

“I know there were a lot of people against holding this Olympics due to the coronavirus,” said a flag-waving, 47-year-old fan on the marathon route who gave his name as Tsujita.

“But I am glad it took place. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone.”

The marathon, moved north to Sapporo to avoid Tokyo’s summer heat, was one of the few events to allow spectators.

Fears of a major outbreak among the mostly vaccinated Olympic athletes and officials proved unfounded and 430 cases were picked up during the Games, including 32 in the Olympic Village.

But the virus has lurked as an ever-present threat. Victory celebrations were muted, with lonely laps of honour. But the athletes’ emotions were on full view.

Superstar gymnast Simone Biles provided the most jaw-dropping moment when she abruptly pulled out of competition over a bout of the “twisties”, a disorientating mental block.

Biles, widely acknowledged as the greatest gymnast in history, recovered sufficiently to claim a redemptive bronze medal in her final event, the beam.

Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand became the first openly transgender woman to compete at the Games and Canada’s Quinn became the first openly transgender Olympic medallist, with gold in the women’s football.

In other highlights, the US men’s team won their fourth consecutive men’s basketball crown, US swimmer Caeleb Dressel assumed the mantle of Michael Phelps with five gold medals in the pool and Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah achieved a sprint double on the track.

Among the final events on Sunday, Jason Kenny claimed the men’s keirin to become the first Briton to win seven Olympic titles.

The Olympic flag was passed to 2024 hosts Paris at the ceremony.

AMMAN — As the Tokyo 2020 Games draw to a close, the Jordanian contingent ended participation on a fine note after clinching a silver and bronze medal which put the Kingdom on the medals table of the world’s biggest sporting competition. 

Saleh Al Sharabaty became a new national hero winning a silver medal for Jordan in the taekwondo under 80kg category, following in the footsteps of teammate Ahmad Abu Ghaush who won the country’s first ever Olympic medal — a precious gold — at the Rio Games in 2016.

The second medal was secured by 5th year medical student Abdul Rahman Al Masatfa who clinched a bronze in the under 67 kg category as karate made its debut as an Olympic sport.

A record 14 athletes represented Jordan at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — the biggest delegation to date, headed by ex-taekwondo star Nadine Dawani. Athletes competed in eight sports: taekwondo, karate, boxing, judo, equestrian, swimming, shooting and athletics.

The Games also marked the highest numbers of qualifiers with 10 of the 14 athletes qualifying through competition. As with most Arab athletes who have settled for the idea of symbolic participation at the Games, Jordan’s contingent included a combination of athletes qualifying to the Games while others received the International Olympic Committee invitations which respect the principle of universal representation. 

Apart from the qualifiers, non-qualifying athletes take part based on the “quota” or wild card system which aims at making sure countries from all corners of the globe are present. 

Until 2000, table tennis was the only game whose athletes qualified through competition, through players Jacqueline Duqum in Seoul 1988, Nadia Rashad in Barcelona 1992 and Tatiana Najjar in Sydney 2000. 

Taekwondo and boxing followed soon after. In 2004, table tennis’ Zeina Sha’ban, equestrian’s Ibrahim Bisharat and taekwondo’s Nadine Dawani and Ibrahim Aqil qualified to the Athens Olympics. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Dawani, Bisharat and Sha’ban again qualified. 

In 2012, Jordan had Mohammad Abu Libbeh, Dawani and Raya Hatahet qualifying in taekwondo, Bisharat in equestrian and Ihab Al Matbouli in boxing. In 2016, it was Abu Ghaush in taekwondo and Hussein Ishaish in boxing. 

This year, the 10 qualifiers included equestrian Ibrahim Bisharat; boxers Ziyad Isheish, Hussein Isheish, Ali Hindwai, Mohammad Wadi and Obada Kasba; Sharabaty and Juliana Sadeq in taekwondo; Younes Salman in judo and Masatfa in karate. Those invited to compete included Asma Abu Rabee in shooting, Talita Baqleh and Amr Al Wir in swimming, and Alia Bushnaq in athletics.

The 2016 Rio Games will always be remembered for the Games when a single athlete made history for Jordan. Then a 20-year old Abu Ghaush, who came in top spot in taekwondo’s 68-kilogramme category, was the youngest competitor in his weight class and also became the first taekwondo athlete in the Arab world to win gold. He was 2012 World Junior Champion, 2012 Asian Junior Champion and 2016 Asian Olympic qualifying gold medallist.

Previously, ever since first participating in the 1980 Olympics, Jordan’s national anthem was played only once before when Maha Barghouti won a gold medal in wheelchair table tennis at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000.

In the past, there were significant achievements in taekwondo like three bronze medals at the 1988 Seoul Games by Samer Kamal and Ihsan Abu Sheikha, and at the 1992 Barcelona Games by Ammar Fahed. However, taekwondo was still considered an “exhibition sport” at the time.

The Tokyo Games marked the 11th time for Jordan at the Olympics where over 11,600 athletes from 206 nations competed in the Olympics postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The Games come to an end on Sunday with the closing ceremony following which the Olympic flag will pass on to the host of the 2024 Games — Paris, France.

Jordan now awaits the Paralympics which will start on August 24 with the nation competing in three events: table tennis, athletics and weightlifting. Since 1984, Jordan has won a total of 12 medals at the Paralympics (1 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze).

TOKYO — Allyson Felix became the most decorated American track and field Olympian in history on Saturday as India won their first-ever athletics gold and Kevin Durant’s USA extended their men’s basketball reign.

Elsewhere, with 34 golds up for grabs, Brazil beat Spain 2-1 to become men’s football champions and world number one Nelly Korda gave the Americans the women’s golf title to go with the men’s.

With just a handful of events remaining at the Games in Japan, including the men’s marathon, China lead the way on 38 golds, with the United States second on 36 and Japan on 27.

US sprint queen Felix brought the curtain down on her glittering Olympic career with a seventh gold medal as the Americans stormed to victory in the 4x400m women’s relay, adding gloss with victory in the men’s event.

The 35-year-old’s 11th medal overall — including her bronze in the individual 400m on Friday — takes her past Carl Lewis as the nation’s most-decorated athlete.

“The first [gold] was a very, very long time ago [in Athens 2004] when everything was new,” she said. “ And this one everything is different but in a good way. 

“I am so pleased it was running with these amazing women.”

Neeraj Chopra, 23, won the men’s javelin to give India, with a population of 1.3 billion people, their first Olympic athletics gold.

Bollywood music boomed out on the stadium tannoy after Chopra had launched his sixth and final throw, in the knowledge he had won gold.

The farmer’s son sprinted the length of the infield, an Indian flag fluttering over his shoulders.

Hundreds of people watched the final on a screen outside Chopra’s house in Panipat in the northern state of Haryana, exploding with joy when Chopra was declared the winner.

“It feels unbelievable,” he said. “It is the first time India has won a gold in athletics, so I feel very good.”

Dutch distance runner Sifan Hassan completed a stunning 5,000m-10,000m double to emulate Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba’s feat at the 2008 Beijing Games.

The Ethiopia-born Hassan was targeting an unprecedented treble in Tokyo but came up short in Friday’s 1500m final, taking home the bronze.

“I am so happy and I cried during the medal ceremony. I actually realised that I am done, the Games are over,” said Hassan after her victory in the 10,000m.

“I am just so thankful, and I don’t think I could have done any better than this. During the medal ceremony I was thinking: ‘It is over. Now you can sleep!’”

Three-time world champion Mariya Lasitskene won the women’s Olympic high jump while Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen became the first European to win the men’s 1500m since 1992.

Earlier, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir triumphed in the women’s marathon in intense heat in Sapporo in one of the few events where fans were allowed at the Olympics, which have mostly unfolded in front of empty venues because of strict coronavirus restrictions.

France handed the United States its first Olympic basketball defeat since 2004 in the group stage of the men’s tournament but could not repeat the feat in the final, narrowly losing 87-82 in Saitama.

Durant poured in a game-high 29 points as the Americans survived some nervous late moments.

“I am bonded with these guys for life, it’s a family for life. I am grateful we all committed to this [Olympics] early and finished it off,” Durant said. 

Patty Mills scored 42 points as Australia finally won their first Olympic medal in men’s basketball, with a 107-93 victory over Slovenia in the bronze medal game.

Brazil retained its Olympic men’s football title as substitute Malcom struck the winner in a 2-1 victory over Spain after extra time in Yokohama.

On the golf course, Korda sealed the women’s title, as the daughter of Czech former tennis world number two Petr Korda stayed cool during a late storm delay to finish one stroke clear. Her compatriot Xander Schauffele won the men’s competition last week.

Japan beat the United States 2-0 in the baseball final while France wrested back the men’s handball title from Denmark, winning 25-23.

Chinese diver Cao Yuan won the nation’s seventh gold medal out of eight events to emphasise their dominance in the sport, relegating Britain’s Tom Daley to the bronze medal position in the men’s 10m platform final.

AMMAN — Abdul Rahman Al Masatfa has won Jordan’s second medal of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after clinching a bronze in the 67kg Karate competition, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service. 

The 25-year-old medical student won every single fight in Pool B to book a semifinal match against Turkey’s Eray Samdan, which he lost 2-0.

Masatfa started his campaign with an 8-3 win over Kalvis Kalnins, of Latvia, before beating France’s Steven de Costa, 7-4. Victories over the Refugee Olympic Team’s Hamoon Derafshipour (3-0) and Colombia’s Andres Madera Delgado (4-1) followed to secure the medal by finishing top.

It is the first time that Karate has appeared at the Olympic Games, and the medal is Jordan’s second of Tokyo 2020 after Saleh Al Sharabaty secured a Taekwondo silver earlier in the Games.

It has been a memorable event for Jordan who sent a record 14 athletes to Japan. 

It was almost three medals but -91kg boxer Hussein Ishaish lost in the quarter-final of his bout earlier in the Games.

TOKYO — The USA suffered deep disappointment on the track at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday while Australian teen Keegan Palmer flew to a stunning skateboarding gold medal.

The USA men's basketball team beat Australia 97-78 thanks to 23 points from Kevin Durant to reach a fourth consecutive final where they will face France, who stunned the Americans in their opening match.

Spain struck double gold in sports making their Olympics debut. Sandra Sanchez Jaime won the inaugural karate title at the spiritual home of martial arts, the Nippon Budokan, while Alberto Gines Lopez took the first sport climbing honours.

The USA's poor day on the track began with a stunning flop in the men's 4x100 metres relay heats, and extended to red-hot favourite Grant Holloway's defeat to 31-year-old Hansle Parchment in the 110m hurdles.

"I don't think a lot of people expected me to win," said Parchment.

Things did not improve in the evening session when not a single US runner got among the men's 400m medals in a race won by Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas. 

Colombia's Anthony Jose Zambrano took silver in 44.08sec and nine years after he won in London, Grenada's Kirani James won bronze in 44.19sec.

The USA's defending 1500m champion Matthew Centrowitz finished outside the qualifying spots for Saturday's final.

Some American pride was restored by shot putter Ryan Crouser, who hurled an Olympic record 23.30 metres to retain his title, and pole vaulter Katie Nageotte, who cleared 4.90m to win a low-key women's pole vault competition.

Those golds helped the USA cut China's lead at the top of the overall Games medals table to five golds.

'Total embarrassment'

Perhaps the biggest shock for Team USA was their men's relay team, the world champions and pre-Games favourites, who finished a desultory sixth in their heat to miss out on the final.

Sprint legend Carl Lewis called it a "total embarrassment" as Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie became the first US quartet to fail to make the final from a completed heat.

"We just didn't get the job done today," said Kerley. "No excuses."

Portuguese triple jumper Pedro Pichardo leapt 17.98m — the seventh longest in history — to win gold and veteran decathlete Damian Warner of Canada produced two days of consistent excellence to win gold.

In the heptathlon, Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam successfully defended her title, helped by the withdrawal due to injury of British world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson on the first day.

At the Ariake Urban Sports Park, 18-year-old Palmer wrapped up the Olympics' inaugural skateboarding programme with a brilliant gold medal in the men's park event.

Uncorking a kickflip 540 he had saved for the occasion, the Australian scored a massive 94.04 points in his first run before bettering his score to 95.83, way ahead of silver medallist Pedro Barros's 86.14 and American Cory Juneau, who claimed bronze with 84.13.

USA beat Boomers

In basketball, Durant scored 23 points and Devin Booker added 20 as the USA stormed back to beat Australia after trailing by three points at half-time.

The defending champions will go head-to-head with France who booked their place in the final with a nail-biting 90-89 win against Luka Doncic's Slovenia.

America's Nelly Korda took control of the women's golf when she fired a nine-under 62 in round two — after coming close to carding only the second 59 in women's professional golf.

Korda, needing a birdie on the last hole for a magical 59, took double-bogey but she still has a four-shot cushion at halfway at par-71 Kasumigaseki Country Club.

Quan Hongchan, 14 and the youngest member of China's team, produced three maximum scores to win the women's 10m platform and secure China's sixth gold medal out seven diving events so far.

And India, a one-time hockey superpower, celebrated their first medal in the sport in 41 years when their men's team beat Germany 5-4 to win bronze.

The men's 20-kilometre walk was moved to Sapporo in a bid to avoid Tokyo's punishing summer heat, but it was 32 degrees Celsius during the afternoon race. Italy's Massimo Santo conquered the conditions to win.

In what is expected to be her last Olympics, 36-year-old Megan Rapinoe signed off with two goals and a bronze medal as the United States beat Australia 4-3 in the women's football play-off.

TOKYO — Andre de Grasse said he had “shocked the world” after storming to victory in the Olympic 200 metres final on Wednesday as the United States’ 17-year sprinting gold medal drought continued.

Canadian star de Grasse completed a long road back from injury and illness to win gold in 19.62sec, with the USA’s Kenny Bednarek taking silver in 19.68sec and world 200m champion Noah Lyles the bronze in 19.74sec.

The victory came five years after de Grasse announced his arrival among the elite of international sprinting with a silver medal in the 200m behind Usain Bolt at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“I want everyone to know that I shocked the world,” said de Grasse, who also took silver in the 200m behind Lyles at the 2019 world championships.

De Grasse’s 200m victory in Tokyo and the 100m triumph of Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs mean that the US remains without a victory in the individual Olympic men’s short sprints since 2004.

By the time of the next Olympics in Paris it will be 20 years since Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford completed a 100-200 US double at the Athens Games.

Lyles had been strongly tipped to end that losing streak in Tokyo, but was unable to respond as de Grasse controlled Wednesday’s final from start to finish.

“I know everyone was saying that the Americans were going to win,” de Grasse said. 

“But this was my moment, I knew I had it in me, and I just wanted to come out here and get the job done.”

‘Battling adversity’

De Grasse said he had almost given up hope of returning to top-level sprinting during difficult seasons in 2017 and 2018 when he was hampered by a string of injuries and illness.

“I’ve been training hard, I’ve been battling adversity going through my injuries,” de Grasse said. “But my sponsors, my family, my friends never gave up on me, even when sometimes I gave up on myself. 

“They said ‘You’ve got more in the tank, don’t let the media and pressure get to you, get out there and be yourself.’”

“2017 was tough for me. I was in London watching the world championships and I felt I could have been there and felt like I could have won the gold medal there. I was in great shape.

“To come back in 2018 and re-injure myself, the same hamstring, was really devastating, but I kept with the rehab... I had to keep going, keep pushing.”

Starting in lane six in Wednesday’s final, de Grasse made a smooth start and led coming into the straight to control the race, holding off the challenge of Bednarek and Lyles over the final 50 metres.

American 17-year-old Erriyon Knighton finished just outside the medals in fourth in a time of 19.93sec.

“He’s going to be dangerous in the future,” silver medallist Bednarek said of Knighton. “17 years old and being able to run this fast. He’s definitely going to be a monster in the future.”

Meanwhile bronze medallist Lyles, who had spoken of his battles with depression before the Olympics, said a long season had finally caught up with him.

“Mentally and physically it’s been a very long season, coming off anti-depressants, going on anti-depressants,” he said. 

“It’s nice to have the medal. I wanted the gold, but I have no regrets on that. Everyone who’s up here is very fast, I’m honoured.”

TOKYO — Japan’s Sakura Yosozumi won the women’s park competition to maintain the hosts’ stranglehold on Olympic skateboarding on Wednesday and stop Kokona Hiraki and Sky Brown becoming the Games’ youngest-ever gold medallists.

The 19-year-old opened the final with a flowing run featuring two 540s, with her 60.09 points proving enough for victory ahead of teammate Hiraki, 12, and Brown, 13.

“This medal feels unreal — it feels like a dream,” said Yosozumi, as she celebrated at a sun-baked Ariake Urban Sports Park on Tokyo Bay.

“I hope skateboarding is going to be very popular in Japan because of the strong performances of the Japanese team,” she said, adding: “Now I want to go back home and eat some delicious food.”

Despite missing the title Hiraki, who scored 59.04, achieved the rare feat of winning an Olympic medal before her 13th birthday — the first to do so since French rower Noel Vandernotte in 1936.

Japan-born Brown, who became Britain’s youngest Olympic medallist, threatened to snatch a dramatic win with a flawless closing routine but she was awarded 56.47 points to take bronze. 

“It was unbelievable,” Brown said of her medal-winning run. “Even right now it feels like a dream. It’s insane. 

“I’m so happy and so thankful and so proud of every one of the other girls, too.”

There was heartbreak for world number one Misugu Okamoto, who missed a medal when she fell on all three runs in the final to finish fourth.

New audiences

Japan also snapped up the men’s and women’s street titles and they have bagged five of the nine medals so far as skateboarding makes its Olympic bow.

Skateboarding is one of four debut sports aimed at reaching new audiences and in an ultra-young field, only eight of the 20 competitors were out of their teens. The podium had a combined age of 44.

Both Brown, at 13 years and 28 days, and Hiraki (12 years and 343 days) were bidding to break an 85-year-old record to become the youngest champions in Olympic history.

They had a shot at bettering American diver Marjorie Gestring, who won 3m springboard gold aged 13 years and 268 days at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

For Brown it completes a comeback just over a year after a horrific fall in training left her with skull fractures and a broken wrist and hand.

The accident would have ruled Brown, just 11 at the time, out of the 2020 Olympics if they had not been postponed for a year over the coronavirus pandemic.

“Everyone did amazing, everyone was doing so good, I’m so proud of everyone,” she said on Wednesday, paying tribute to her friend Yosozumi.

“Just being on the podium with my really good friend is just insane.”

Brown, born to a Japanese mother and a British father, opted to compete for Britain in 2019, saying the team offered a more relaxed approach.

TOKYO — Karsten Warholm and Elaine Thompson-Herah made history on a memorable day in athletics at the Olympics, the Norwegian destroying his own world record in winning the 400 metres hurdles and the Jamaican completing a historic women’s sprint “double double”.

Warholm stormed home in one of the all-time great Olympic track races, setting a new mark of 45.94 seconds.

His great rival, Rai Benjamin, ran the second fastest time in history (46.17sec), and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos narrowly missed out ducking inside the old world record, clocking 46.72sec to take bronze.

The charismatic Warholm celebrated by ripping open his running vest in Superman style.

“I always say that the perfect race doesn’t exist, but this is the closest I’ve come to a perfect race,” Warholm said.

The two-time world champion said he decided to set a furious pace from the gun in order to “stress” his rivals.

“After that I just ran for my life,” he said. “I would have died for that gold medal today.”

There were no such theatrics from Thompson-Herah, even though she ran the second fastest time in history.

Her time of 21.53sec is only slower than Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record of 21.34sec set at the drug-tarnished 1988 Seoul Olympics.

“Oh my god, it’s amazing that I have ever seen this day,” said 29-year-old Thompson-Herah.

“That I could complete another double. I can’t believe it. I have had a rough week. I haven’t slept after the 100m final.

“I really had to pull it out to win the 200m. It’s a new PB (personal best) and a national record.

“I am so, so happy.”

The USA may have struggled to translate finalists into gold over the opening five days of track and field, but two of their next generation showed there is plenty of talent on the way up.

Athing Mu, 19, was an impressive winner of the women’s 800 metres — the first American to do so since Madeline Manning in 1968.

“I wasn’t really putting gold on that, but as it got closer to the final today, I was like, ‘Yeah, we want gold’,” she said.

“It’s an accomplishment that I wanted off my list.”

Her fellow teenager Erriyon Knighton qualified for Wednesday’s men’s 200m final — the youngest finalist since fellow 17-year-old Ade Mafe of Britain in 1984.

‘Queen of the hammer’

The field event finals also had their fair share of drama.

German long jumper Malaika Mihambo prevailed in a classic duel with 2012 gold medallist and four-time world champion Brittney Reese of the United States.

Mihambo was lying in the bronze medal position ahead of her final jump, but hammered down the runway to register a season-best of 7.00 metres and emerge victorious.

“I knew this was my last chance and that I had to do it, and I knew I had more in me than 6.95,” Mihambo told AFP.

“So I believed in myself.”

Armand Duplantis won the men’s pole vault with a best mark of 6.02m.

However, there was more drama than during the actual competition after he had secured the gold.

The Swedish star went devilishly close in two of his three attempts at beating his own world record of 6.18m.

The field event fraternity would not permit the track glamour brigade to have all the headlines.

Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk became the first female athlete to win the same track and field event three times with victory in the hammer.

The 35-year-old Pole, who won golds in the 2012 and 2016 Games in London and Rio, succeeded where Valerie Adams (shot put), Sandra Perkovic (discus) and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (100m) had fallen short at these Games.

“I feel good,” she said. “I was dreaming of becoming the queen of the hammer throw.”

TOKYO — Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen received royal approval after winning badminton gold Monday to break Asia’s stranglehold, then warned he intends to reign over the sport for some time to come.

Axelsen beat China’s defending champion Chen Long 21-15, 21-12 in the men’s singles final, becoming the first non-Asian to claim the title since 1996.

The World No. 2 sobbed in disbelief after Chen hit the final shot long, then regained his composure to take a courtside phone call from Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik.

“He just told me that it was amazing to see and he knows that I’ve worked really hard for this and big congrats,” said Axelsen, who did not lose a single game in Tokyo.

“Obviously it means a lot to me.”

Axelsen took control of the match early and never loosened his grip, constantly turning the screw to give World No. 6 Chen few opportunities.

The Dane won bronze at the 2016 Rio Games — losing to Chen in the semi-finals — and he said the experience made him “really hungry to do even better” in Tokyo.

He achieved that with a series of dominant performances, but warned he can still improve.

Axelsen described Chen as his “inspiration” and rushed to exchange shirts with his opponent after the match.

Chen was aiming to emulate Chinese badminton legend Lin Dan in retaining his Olympic title.

He admitted the five years since he won in Rio had been “very long” with many “self-doubts”, but he was satisfied with his overall performance.

“Although I didn’t win gold, from my first day in Tokyo until today, I played every match according to my plan,” said the 32-year-old.

Axelsen followed in the footsteps of Danish compatriot Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen, the Atlanta Games champion and last winner from outside Asia.

Hoyer-Larsen, now world badminton’s president, was in the arena to watch Axelsen match his achievement.

“When you win an Olympic final in straight games like this against Cheng Long, I think you can say that you’ve been at least really, really close to your best,” said Axelsen.

Reward at last

Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting took bronze, beating gutsy Guatemalan World No. 59 Kevin Cordon 21-11, 21-13.

Ginting’s win gave Indonesia two medals on the final day of badminton, after Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu claimed gold in the women’s doubles.

It was Indonesia’s first Olympic title in women’s doubles, and the country’s first gold medal of the Tokyo Games.

Polii, 33, said her years of “passion and commitment” had been rewarded.

The win marked an incredible turnaround for Polii, who was ready to quit the sport five years ago when her partner Nitya Krishinda Maheswari needed knee surgery following the pair’s quarter-final defeat at the Rio Games.

It also helped wipe away the bitter memory of London in 2012, when she and partner Meiliana Jauhari were thrown out for deliberately losing a group match to secure a more favourable draw.