It’s always interesting to think about what sports could be next to make it to the Olympics. But Wales, Argentina, NZ, Argentina and Australia will be rubbing their shears at this one. Sheep shearing for Brisbane 2032 anyone? Considering it has a population of 1.3bn, India has not had a huge amount of Olympic success. It’s won nine gold medals in Games history, the last one coming in 2008 in shooting. But we have a contender in the men’s javelin: Neeraj Chopra. The Asian and Commonwealth Games champion put in a huge throw of 86.65 to qualify for the final. Lassi Etelätalo of Finland was the only other man from Group A of qualifying to guarantee his place in the final. USA’s Michael Shuey fouled on all three of his attempts. Given Australia’s historic success in the Olympic swimming pool, the nation’s lack of a medal in the marathon swimming was an anomaly. Since the 10km discipline was introduced at the 2008 Olympics, not a single Australian has finished on the podium in the open water event. But after Australia’s best-ever medal haul at an Olympic swim meet last week, Kareena Lee continued her nation’s success in the water with a bronze medal in the marathon swim on Wednesday. It was a remarkable swim by Lee, moving up through the field in a gritty effort in the latter stages to finish on the podium. With a finishing time of 1:59:32 at the Odaiba Marine Park, Lee was barely two seconds off the winner, Ana Marcela Cunha. Lee’s medal success on her Olympic debut is a remarkable achievement after the swimmer narrowly missed out on the 2016 Games. Racing at the 2015 World Aquatic Championships in the hope of a top 10 finish that would have sent her to Rio, Lee was hospitalised with a combination of asthma, dehydration, hypothermia and a facial injury. The withdrawal ended her hopes of a 2016 Olympic appearance, but Lee fought back to qualify for Tokyo. Lee is coached by legendary swim coach John Rodgers, a three-time Australian swim coach of the year. Kai Edwards will be aiming to repeat Lee’s success when he takes to the water in the men’s marathon swimming on Thursday. Women’s park skateboarding: To the skate park! The first heat is done and Japan’s Yosozumi Sakura won with a score of 45.98, followed by Brazil’s Dora Varella (41.59) and Germany’s Lilly Stoephasius (38.37). There are four heats with five skaters in each heat. The top eight overall scores go through to the final - so you could win your heat and still not get to the final. Britain’s Bombette Martin (16.21) finished fourth and is unlikely to progress with 15 more skaters to come. Men’s decathlon 100m: Spain’s Jorge Ureña wins heat two in 10.66, the fastest time of the day so far. Norway’s Martin Roe is second and Australia’s Cedric Dubler is third in 10.89, the fifth best time of the day so far. In heat three, Canada’s Damian Warner sets a lightning fast time of 10.12 - that equals the best-ever 100m in the decathlon, which was set in 2019 by ... Damian Warner. Australia’s Ashley Moloney also has a good run with 10.34. After the first heat, it’s Warner in first place, Ashley Moloney is second and another Canadian, Pierce Lepage, in third. But it’s very early days. Obviously. About 10% done by my estimation. The men’s decathlon has started with the 100m. The 2016 silver medalist, reigning world champion and world record holder (yeah, but what’s he ever done with his life?) Kevin Mayer goes in the first heat. The Frenchman finishes second behind Grenada’s Lindon Victor. Mayer’s time of 10.68 is short of his personal best of 10.55 but it’s a solid start. And now we’ve looked at the Aussie chances, here’s where Team USA can go big today. 10.30pm EDT: women’s 400m hurdles final Three US women – including the newly minted world-record holder – are set to square off in the final of the women’s 400m hurdles. Sydney McLaughlin, 21, set the world record at the US Olympic trials in June, and she won her semifinal heat Monday with a time of 53.03 seconds. (That’s 1.13 seconds off her time from the trials.) Dalilah Muhammad, the previous record holder, won her semi, too, clocking in at 53.30 seconds, and Anna Cockrell, a recent USC graduate competing in her first Games, placed second in her semi-final. McLaughlin and Muhammad are expected to contend for gold, and Cockrell, too, has a real shot at medaling. 7am EDT: women’s 3000m steeplechase final Emma Coburn is competing in the steeplechase in her third consecutive Olympics; she didn’t medal in 2012 and took bronze in ‘16, and she’s expected to contend in Tokyo. Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech is favored in the race – she holds the current world record – but had a mediocre showing in her preliminary race Saturday. Chepkoech did qualify for the final, but she’s dealing with an inflamed Achilles tendon, potentially leaving a door open for Coburn to take gold. Two more Americans, Courtney Frerichs and Val Constien, also qualified for the steeplechase final. 7.15am EDT: men’s hammer throw final Two American men, Daniel Haugh and Rudy Winkler, qualified for the hammer throw final. In the semi-final, Winkler had the second-farthest throw of anyone in the 31-man field, and Haugh’s throw was good for ninth. Winkler is competing in his second Games; he placed 18th in the qualifying round in 2016 and did not advance to the final. These are Haugh’s first Olympics. 8.05am EDT: men’s 800m final Clayton Murphy, who won bronze in the 800 in Rio, was the only American man to qualify for the finalsin the event this summer. His semi-final time was third-best among the field of 24. Wilson’s wife, sprinter Ariana Washington, is also an Olympian; the two met in the Olympic Village in 2016. Washington isn’t racing in Tokyo. 8.55am EDT: men’s 200m final The men’s 200m final is packed with Americans, and in a field that doesn’t include Usain Bolt, it’s anyone’s race. Of the Americans, 22-year-old Kenny Bednarek ran fastest in the semi-finals, finishing second to Canada’s Andre de Grasse, who took second in the event behind Bolt in Rio. Erriyon Knighton, who’s just 17 years old, won his semi-final heat, and Noah Lyles, who’s the reigning world champion in the event, also made the field. It’s that time of day where we look at Australian chances over the 15 hours or so. Peter Bol and Genevieve Gregson go for gold in the men’s 800m and women’s steeplchase finals, while Mat Belcher and Will Ryan are poised for sailing glory and the Opals play the US in a basketball quarter-final. Ivor Leonard writes in with a good question: “Having watched the 1500m swim and how close the swimmers are after swimming for what seemed forever,” he says. “I can’t believe that after a 10k swim taking nearly two hours the winner won by only 0.9 seconds. Surely in percentage terms (0.0125% I think) this is the closest finish of any sport. In some of the pool events the winner was further ahead! Hopefully someone out there can confirm! Well, the golf takes four days, and Xander Schauffele only won the men’s tournament by one stroke. Which takes around a second. But maybe that doesn’t count. Women’s golf: Very early days here. The first round has just started and only a few of the athletes are out on the course. Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines is -2 after three holes, Ko Jin Young of South Korea is -1 and everyone else who is out is on par. But the majority of the field are in the clubhouse. Women’s marathon swim: The end is amusingly confusing as most of the athletes have white caps. Only the Aussie Lee is easy to pick out in her yellow cap. And she touches home for bronze! Brazil’s Cunha sprints home for gold and the Netherlands’ Van Rouwendaal gets silver. Women’s marathon swim: Cunha tries to break from the pack in the closing stages but Lee, Beck and Van Rouwendaal have her in their sights... Women’s marathon swim: The final turn and 500m to go. Cunha of Brazil leads then Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands, Germany’s Beck and Australia’s Lee. It’s very close though. Women’s marathon swim: Brazil’s Cunha has the lead with 650m to go. But only just... Women’s marathon swim: The group of eight - who sounds like a spy ring - soldier on to the finish. They are Leonie Beck of Germany, Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha, USA’s Ashley Twichell and Haley Anderson, China’s Xin Xin, Australia’s Kareena Lee, Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal and Hungary’s Anna Olasz. All have a chance with five minutes or so to go. Women’s marathon swim: About 10 minutes to go in the race, which is more than most of have ever done the front crawl without stopping. These women though? They laugh at your 15 minutes of front crawl [NB: other strokes are available]. By my estimation any of nine swimmers could take the gold, they’re all bunched up as we reach the final lap, including USA Haley Anderson and Ashley Twichell, and Australia’s Kareena Lee. GB’s Alice Dearing is too far back to threaten the leaders though. Germany’s Leonie Beck leads by two seconds. Preamble Hello. A few early starts today at the women’s marathon swim (does the water get hot later on in the day?) and the start of the women’s golf tournament - they’re out and about already. As for the rest of the day? Here’s Martin Belam with a rundown of the upcoming action. Day 12 at a glance All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Brisbane, subtract eight hours for Hastings, 13 hours for Miami and 16 hours for San Diego. 9am-12.25pm and 6.30pm-10pm Athletics – a lot of the day is taken up with decathlon and heptathlon. There are semi-finals in the men’s 110m hurdles, women’s 400m and 1500m. The medals will come in the women’s 400m hurdles final (11.30am), women’s 3000m steeplechase (8pm), men’s hammer throw final (8.15pm), men’s 800m final (9.05pm) and the last race of the day at 9.55pm is the men’s 200m final 🥇 9am-12.30pm Skateboarding – it’s the women’s park event, there are four rounds of prelims and then the final starts at 12.30pm, and 13-year-old Sky Brown is involved 🥇 10.30am and 7pm Hockey – the women’s competition reaches the semi-final stage. After the dramatic shootout with Spain, next for Team GB is the Netherlands in the morning match. Argentina face India in the evening game. 1.50pm and 7.50pm Weightlifting – it is the final day of weightlifting at the Tokyo International Forum, with the men’s +109kg 🥇 2pm-4.10pm Boxing – it is semi-final bouts all-day, including Team GB’s Frazer Clarke at 3.03pm. The last fight of the day is scheduled for 3.35pm, and will be the men’s light heavy final featuring Ben Whittaker of Great Britain against Cuba’s Arlen López 🥇 2.33pm and 3.33pm Sailing – conditions permitting, it is the final day of sailing and the Olympics end at Enoshima with first the men’s and then the women’s two-person dinghy – 470 finals 🥇 3.30pm-7pm Track cycling – absolutely packed programme featuring men’s sprint, women’s keirin and then at 5.59pm there’s the bronze and gold medal races in the men’s team pursuit 🥇 5pm, 6pm and 9.10pm Sport climbing – admit it, you were absolutely gripped by this yesterday, weren’t you? It’s qualification day for the women. 7pm Equestrian – it is the individual jumping final 🐴🥇 7.30pm Artistic swimming – it is the duet free routine final 🥇 You can find our full interactive events schedule here, and I’ve been finding it absolutely essential, because as well as telling you what is coming up next, it also tells you what is in play with live scores throughout the day. As it stands Here’s how the emoji table looks: 1 🇨🇳 China 🥇 32 🥈 21 🥉 16 total: 69 2 🇺🇸 USA 🥇 24 🥈 28 🥉 21 total: 73 3 🇯🇵 Japan 🥇 19 🥈 6 🥉 11 total: 36 4 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 14 🥈 4 🥉 15 total: 33 5 ◽️ Not Russia 🥇 13 🥈 21 🥉 18 total: 52 6 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🥇 13 🥈 17 🥉 13 total: 43 7 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 8 🥈 8 🥉 14 total: 30 8 🇫🇷 France 🥇 6 🥈 10 🥉 8 total: 24 9 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 6 🥈 7 🥉 7 total: 20 10 🇰🇷 South Korea 🥇 6 🥈 4 🥉 9 total: 19