Tokyo Olympics 2020: Phil Gifford - My five events to watch on day nine

Valerie Adams will throw for the chance for a fourth Olympic medal. Photo / AP

The ecstasy of Olympic success was written all over the faces of the brilliant women's sevens team, who showed so much resilience and courage on the way to their victory in the final. They're qualities Dame Valerie Adams has shown throughout her glittering career, as she writes the final chapters.

1) Her powerful space

Valerie Adams, Maddi Wesche - Women's shot put final, 1.35pm

Sir Murray Halberg has been in Valerie Adams' corner since he was in the New Zealand management team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Adams was just 17, but Halberg told me in 2012 that "I learned she had a total focus and commitment, and you felt you shouldn't intrude on her space. She occupied her space, a space that was very powerful."

So much had changed, he said, since he was Olympic 5000 metres champion in 1960, but for gold medal winners some things were exactly the same. "We don't just want to make the Olympic team, we don't just want to perform with distinction, we don't just want a medal. We want to win." It's a major triumph of will that at 36 Adams is in Tokyo to challenge for a podium finish, not to make up numbers. If Wesche wants a role model she couldn't ask for a better one than Adams.

Updates: nzherald.co.nz.
Live commentary: Newstalk ZB.
Watch live: SKY Channel 54, TVNZ.

2) The 38 jumps

Jonelle Price, Tim Price, Jesse Campbell - Eventing individual cross country. 10.45am.

The Prices and Campbell are all in contention after the dressage section was completed, with Tim Price in fifth place, Campbell in 15th, and Jonelle Price 17th. The finer points of dressage are lost on those of us whose involvement with horses goes no further than having once driven past Sir Patrick Hogan's Cambridge stud farm. But you need no expertise to admire the skill and grit of the cross country section. There are 38 jumps on the 4.4km course, which the designer, Spain's Santiago Varela, swears are planned so "the horses are protected." It may not always look like that to the untutored eye, but Verela certainly has a passion for his job. When he married in 1998 he worked on the course for the Madrid horse show until 3pm, "then rushed home to get changed, and just got to the church on time."

Live updates: nzherald.co.nz.
Live commentary: Newstalk ZB.
Watch live: SKY Channel 56, TVNZ.

3) A double threat

Julia Ratcliffe, Lauren Bruce - Women's hammer throw qualification. 12.10pm

Ratcliffe, a 28-year-old with a degree in economics from Princeton University in America, and Bruce, a 24-year-old whose coach Dale Stevenson says "is still discovering how good she is" have been swapping the New Zealand national record between them in the disjointed Covid-19 build up to Tokyo. Ratcliffe won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, but Bruce, with a throw of 74.61m in Arizona in May, currently has the edge in this year's competitions.

Live updates: nzherald.co.nz.
Live updates: Newstalk ZB.
Watch live: SKY Channel 54, TVNZ.

4) Working his way back

Sam Meech - Men's Laser. Medal race. 5.33pm

Meech started competing when he was 13, sailing a leaky Optimist boat called Miss Piggy on Hamilton Lake. He's been on the international circuit since 2008, having been inspired to race Lasers after seeing a teenage Peter Burling sailing one. His forte is grace under pressure, which he's shown in Tokyo, qualifying for the medal race after a mediocre start that saw him place just 19th in both the first two races.

Live updates: nzherald.co.nz.
Live updates: Newstalk ZB.
Watch live: SKY Channel 56, TVNZ.

5) More than a stepping stone

Hamish Kerr - Men's high jump. 10pm

Kerr ranks 11th in the world, and breezed through the qualifying rounds, admitting that once he'd hit the required 2.28m to make the final "I had to ask some of the boys exactly when the final was. I did know it was on Sunday." A commerce graduate of Massey University, for Kerr, at 24, Tokyo may be a step on the way to the next Olympics in Paris. But then there was similar talk about Rio in 2016 being a stepping stone for Eliza McCartney, and she won bronze.

Live updates: nzherald.co.nz.
Live updates: Newstalk ZB.
Watch live: SKY Channel 54, TVNZ.