Volleyball players got scorched on the sands of Tokyo Bay and Olympic walkers sweated through their dawn race in Japan's supposedly cooler north on Friday, while two Belarusian officials were expelled after sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya defected.
As they came close to wilting in the heat, be it actual or metaphorical, Filippo Tortu simply took the breath away with a stunning anchor leg in the men's 4x100 meters relay to bring Italy an unprecedented fifth Olympic track and field gold.
Team USA claimed the women's beach volleyball gold for the birthplace of the sport, as did Japan for karate, and Laura Kenny became the most decorated female Olympic cyclist in history with a fifth gold, destroying the field in the first women's madison event at an Olympics.