Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Two weeks of what seemed like non-stop Olympic action, came to a sudden end for Sideline Sid, with the closing ceremony on Sunday night.

With a time difference of just three hours, and many events starting in early morning to try and negate the stifling heat, there was a mountain of Olympic viewing on offer from mid-morning New Zealand time.

While often critical of television coverage of sport in our country, the Olympic coverage gets a gold medal performance mention in my book 'Sky Sport' for its coverage, which was spread over 12 Olympic channels.

However, I was far from pleased with Sky during the last cricket season, when they handed over coverage of the Black Caps to Spark Sport, which necessitated an extra cable subscription.

But they have redeemed themselves in spades with their Olympic coverage.

TV One also came to the party, with a priority of Kiwi's in action, even breaking into One News with live New Zealand performances.

Much has been written and said about the record performances of the New Zealand Olympic team in Tokyo.

This grey-haired sports fan enjoyed channel hopping to some of the lesser known sports.

The 50km road walk was full of drama, as the participants were in a desperate battle to ensure that they weren't ruled as running by the eagle-eyed course stewards.

Canoe racing, as opposed to the kayaks that Lisa Carrington ruled the waves of the Sea Forest Waterway, was a hoot to watch, with the paddlers kneeling in their boats.

Archery was exciting as the competitors went head-to-head in individual elimination matches.

After the ranking round, the archers went into the elimination competition, with the first to win three sets advancing.

On several occasions a pair would be tied, which introduced a dramatic single arrow shootout.

The introduction of Olympic skateboarding was a blast.

With many of the participants too young to hold a driving license, there was a deluge of spontaneity and impulsiveness on display, during some brilliant skateboard feats.

So too did the BMX and the track cycling produce thrills and spills aplenty.

A more sedate sport was played out on the golf course, where our own Lydia Ko won a bronze medal to add to her silver from Rio.

Sometimes it was hard to keep up with the decisions made by the officials.

Lydia Ko was forced into a playoff for silver and bronze while the two high jumpers were allowed to share the gold medal.

While Lisa Carrington was Sideline Sid's athlete of the Games, there were plenty of other New Zealand performances that stood out for him.

The Black Ferns Seven extra-time win over Fiji in the semi-finals was as dramatic as it gets.

Emma Twigg winning the gold medal in the single sculls at her fourth Olympics brought a tear to the eye.

The Men's eight victory was unexpected, with the value of now three time Olympic gold medalist Hamish Bond in a key seat in the boat, seeming to lift the rowers to gold medal success.

Others not to figure in pre-games medal predictions, but produce the performances of their lives, included triathlete Hayden Wilde and the tennis pair of Marcus Daniel and Michael Venus.

Many of the athletes will have little time to enjoy the afterglow of success, as they turn their attention to the short turnaround leading into the 2022 Commonwealth Games.