Norway’s Karsten Warholm shattered the men’s 400m hurdles world record to claim gold, in a final where six of eight runners broke a record.
Warholm is now the first ever runner to break 46 seconds in the event, finishing in a time of 45.94 to beat his own previous WR of 46.70.
The USA’s Rai Benjamin took silver, setting a new area record with his time of 46.17 - which also beat the previous WR. Brazilian Alison dos Santos set an area record as well, finishing in 46.72 to claim bronze.
Three of the remaining runners broke or equalled national records, and another runner hit their season best time in what was an incredible race.
AUSSIE MEN INTO 1500m SEMIS
Australia’s Stewart McSweyn has qualified for Thursday’s men’s 1500m semi-finals, running a time of 3:36.39 to finish third in his heat. The top six from each of the three heats progressed into the semis.
Fellow Aussie Oliver Hoare will join McSweyn in the next round, after a smartly run race which saw him hold off a number of challenges for the qualifying spots and also finish third in his heat (3:36.09).
It is the first time two Australian men have made the semis of the event since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
Jye Edwards unfortunately missed out on a spot in the semis, after he lost ground when a runner in front of him was one of two to fall during the final lap of a dramatic second heat. Despite a big effort in the closing 200m, Edwards finished in seventh place - less than a second outside the qualifying positions.
A referee review of the race granted Spain’s Jesus Gomez and Polish Marcin Lewandowski spots in the semis, despite the pair finishing 12th and 15th.
AUSSIE SUCCESS IN JAVELIN, TOP EIGHT IN LONG JUMP
All three of Australia’s women in the javelin throw qualified into Friday’s final.
Olympic debutant Mackenzie Little threw a PB of 62.37m to finish second in her qualification group and fourth overall. Her distance was just pipped by fellow Aussie Kelsey-Lee Barber in the second group, who threw a season best of 62.59m to move into the final with the third best throw.
Australia’s other athlete, Kathryn Mitchell, qualified into the final 10th overall with a throw of 61.85m.
In long jump, Australia's Brooke Stratton finished seventh in the women's final on Tuesday - with a best distance of 6.83m from her six attempts.
DOUBLE GOLD TO NEW ZEALAND'S CARRINGTON
New Zealand’s canoe sprint star Lisa Carrington won two gold medals within an hour and a half on Tuesday, taking out both the individual K1 200m final and the K2 500m final with crewmate Caitlin Regal.
It was her third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the K1 200m, after first winning the event at London 2012, and Carrington won in style by setting a new Olympic Best Time of 38.120.
Carrington/Regal also set a new Olympic best in the K2 500m, first breaking the record in the semi-final before improving it to 1:35.785 in the final.
Carrington has won five Olympic medals in her career, and will become New Zealand’s most successful Olympian if she can medal in either of her two other events in Tokyo.
AUSSIE CANOE SPRINT ATHLETES MISS MEDALS
Australia’s pair of Alyssa Bull and Alyce Wood made the A-Final of the women’s K2 500m, after finishing second to Carrington/Regal in the semis, but the Aussies were unable to lift their performance in the medal race and finished in fifth.
Australia’s other women’s pair of Jaime Roberts and Jo Brigden-Jones made the B-Final after bringing up the rear in their semi, and also finished fifth.
In the men’s, Thomas Green finished third in his semi-final for the K1 1000m on Tuesday morning to gain a spot in the A-Final, but wasn’t able to sneak into the medals - finishing just under eight seconds off gold in seventh place.
Jean van der Westhuyzen missed out on qualifying for the A-Final in the event after a disappointing semi-final performance, but managed to improve his time to finish third in the B-Final.