Adam Peaty is convinced the morning starts for swimming finals are contributing to uncertainty in the pool at Tokyo 2020 and hopes defending his Olympic title sparks a gold rush for TeamGB.

Organisers have scheduled swimming finals to take place earlier in the day in the Japanese capital, with the heats being held in the evening.

There have been some notable shocks already, with home favourite Daiya Seto failing to make it out of the heats in the men's 400 metres individual medley, while Tunisian teenager Ahmed Hafnaoui earned an upset win from lane eight in the final of the 400m freestyle.

Coming into the Games, there was talk of whether Peaty could beat his own astonishing world record of 56.88 seconds in the 100m breaststroke.

While unable to do so, Peaty still dominated the competition, winning Monday's final in a time of 57.13, the fifth fastest of all time. 

For 26-year-old Peaty, ensuring he got the job done was the all-encompassing motivator given the way others have struggled.

"To be honest, I've never known swimming like this before," Peaty told a roundtable of journalists after winning gold in Tokyo.

"Normally you've got a solid one-two or maybe three if you can call it. You can't really predict it, in the 400 free there was a Tunisian guy [Hafnaoui] who won it in lane eight. 

"You can't predict that, so I think it is something to do with the morning finals and it's how the athletes adapt to that. I think it was the same in Beijing. 

"Sport is changing and the way we adapt, we train, and focus on mind and body and how we have to balance those. 

"I mean I'm fed up of talking about COVID but it's given us a chance to sort of really think differently about that and there's been a few breakout performances from COVID. 

"Would the medal table look very different last year? We don't know and we'll never know, but yeah it's definitely different."

Peaty, who became a father within the last year, was very open about the pressures he has been through in recent times.

Asked about the contributing factors to that pressure, Peaty said: "I mean put it simply we've seen over these two days, maybe three days, which is a lot of unexpected performances.

"A lot of people who should be going in here defending and winning medals are kicked out, especially in swimming we had Daiya Seto who is Japanese in the 400IM, he didn't make the final. 

"These Games are very, very different, and that's how we talk about pressure now. Mel [Marshall – Peaty's coach] said last night and a few of the other coaches have too, it's not about the times here, no one cares about the times, it's about the race, who wants it more in that last 20 metres. 

"It made me think completely differently, that every single championships I chase times because that's kind of validation for my training, I've trained really well this season.

"But it doesn't matter here, it's about the race, getting on that wall first, but also taking in every single trip and every single moment I can for these Olympics and hopefully inspiring as many people as I can while doing it."

It was five years ago in Rio where Peaty won TeamGB's first gold of the Games, acting as the springboard for a hugely successful Olympics whereby Great Britain won 27 golds and finished second in the medal table.

His success in Tokyo was also TeamGB's first and was quickly followed by triumphs for Tom Daley and Matty Lee in the men's 10m synchronised diving, while Tom Pidcock won the men's cross-country in mountain biking.

"I literally caught it, I caught Tom and Matt on the last dive and it was anti-climactic for me because I don't know how many rounds there are in diving – and I saw them dive, and I saw the Chinese dive because I think they were the last to go and I saw Tom celebrating and I thought 'oh my God they must have won' and yeah that's the beauty," added Peaty, who became the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title.

"I said that it could be a catalyst, not that it's down to me, those athletes are amazing. But it shows you when we come together as a team and show that kind of community spirit anything is possible. 

"We've got three golds, who knows what the rest is going to bring, what the rest of the week is going to bring. 

"I know Duncan Scott is up in the morning on the 200 free and he's a very strong candidate for gold there. Hopefully we've got it rolling now and we'll see the gold rush, eh?"

Romelu Lukaku returned for pre-season training on Monday and outlined his excitement to work under new head coach Simone Inzaghi, who he feels can replicate Antonio Conte's work with Inter.

The Nerazzurri coasted to their first Scudetto since the 2009-10 campaign as they clinched the title with four games to spare, courtesy of a 20-game unbeaten run at the end of the season.

Despite Conte's title-winning campaign, the Italian head coach left by mutual consent in May before Inzaghi, who was previously at Lazio, was appointed at San Siro.

And after returning to Italy following Belgium's Euro 2020 semi-final exit, Lukaku, who scored 24 times in 36 league outings while also providing 11 assists in 2020-21, revealed how hungry he is to work with Inzaghi towards further success.

"We had a good chat on the day that the club announced that he was going to be the new coach and we also spoke when I was at the Euros," Lukaku told Inter's media on Monday.

"My brother has also told me plenty about him. He's a good coach. I think he’ll help the team achieve so much.

"We hope we can all work together to continue down the path that we've started."

Only in 2016-17 at Everton did the forward (25 goals) score more times in one of Europe's top-five leagues than last season and the Belgian promised to chase more silverware in 2021-22.

"We now have a few weeks to prepare as well as we can for the new campaign," the 28-year-old added. "We hope to do well and achieve even more than last year.

"I’m thrilled to be back. We hope to continue down the path that we’ve started and to keep winning. All the players will work hard to make your dreams come true."

Inter get their title defence underway at home to Genoa on August 21 after facing Atletico Madrid on August 7 in their final pre-season friendly.

Pedro Martinez outlasted Lucas Pouille to set up a second-round clash with fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut at the Generali Open.

World number 97 Martinez came through Monday's longest match, which lasted two hours and 43 minutes, as a 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 winner.

Mikael Ymer, who reached the quarter-finals of last week's Swiss Open Gstaad, is also through to the second round in Austria after battling past Pablo Cuevas 6-3 7-5.

Qualifier Jozef Kovalik will face Jiri Vesely for a place in the quarter-finals, meanwhile, after beating ninth seed Jaume Munar in straight sets.

Also through on Monday was lucky loser Carlos Taberner, who took advantage of his second chance by battling from a set down to overcome Thiago Seyboth Wild 3-6 6-3 6-2.

Aaron Rodgers reportedly plans to play for the Green Bay Packers this season.

Rodgers' future with Green Bay has been in doubt since April, when, a year on from the Packers trading up to select his heir apparent Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 draft, it was reported he had grown so disgruntled that he had told some within the organisation he did not wish to return to the team.

The reigning NFL MVP was not present for any of the Packers' offseason practices, skipping their mandatory minicamp, but NFL Media's Ian Rapoport reported on Monday that Rodgers had indicated his desire to play for Green Bay this year to people close to him.

Meanwhile, speaking at the Packers' annual shareholders meeting at Lambeau Field, president Mark Murphy said of Rodgers: "We want him back, we're committed to him for 2021 and beyond. He's our leader and we're looking forward to winning another Super Bowl."

General manager Brian Gutekunst explained: "We have been working tirelessly with Aaron and his representatives to resolve the issues [Rodgers has raised], and we are hopeful for a positive resolution."

Should Rodgers return for 2021, the Packers will be among the favourites to reach the Super Bowl, having progressed to the NFC Championship in each of the previous two seasons, losing to the San Francisco 49ers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

 Rodgers produced one of the finest seasons of his Hall of Fame career in 2020, flourishing in his second year in head coach Matt LaFleur's offense to the tune of 4,299 passing yards, a career-high 48 touchdowns and just five interceptions.

Per Stats Perform data, he was third in the NFL in well-thrown percentage, delivering an accurate, well-thrown ball on 82.4 per cent of his pass attempts.

He was also third in pickable pass percentage. Rodgers threw an interceptable ball on only 2.23 per cent of his passes.

While the Packers will be expected to be an NFC powerhouse again with Rodgers under center, his return could prove to be just a case of delaying the inevitable. Green Bay can save over $22million against the cap next offseason by moving on from Rodgers, making a trade potentially much more palatable.

With or without Rodgers, the Packers will begin their 2021 campaign on September 12 against the New Orleans Saints.

Another superb day for Japan saw the host nation surge to the top of the medal table at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Monday.

Japan now have eight golds after winning Olympic titles in three different sports, the most unexpected of which came in table tennis.

The mixed doubles team of Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito came from two games down to eventually prevail after seven games against China's Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen.

China won all four table tennis titles at Rio 2016 and had been expected to dominate again, only to come unstuck as Japan won the first gold in this new event.

Further joy for Japan came as 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya triumphed in the women's street skateboarding while Shohei Ono was victorious in the men's 73kg category in judo.

Second behind Japan are the United States, who took two shooting golds on day three as well as the men's 4x100m freestyle title in the pool.

China did not add to their tally of six gold medals, one fewer than the USA, having come up short in another event where they had a team of heavy favourites.

Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen were edged out in the men's 10m synchronised platform, with British divers Tom Daley and Matty Lee winning gold.

That was one of three golds for Great Britain, who moved up to fifth in the medal table thanks also to Adam Peaty retaining his 100m breaststroke title and Tom Pidcock dominating in the men's cross-country mountain bike race.

The Russian Olympic Committee sits fourth after adding three golds, the headliner being victory in the men's artistic gymnastics team all-around final. 

Meanwhile, Hidilyn Diaz made history for the Philippines, become the country's first Olympic gold medallist by prevailing in the women's 55kg weightlifting.

Women's featherweight favourite Lin Yu-ting suffered early elimination from the Tokyo Olympics on Monday as the four seeded boxers in the event all crashed out.

Top seed Lin was beaten on points by her much smaller opponent Nesthy Petecio on a day of surprises at the Kokugikan Arena.

"I knew she was the top seed, but I didn't think about that in the ring," said Philippines hopeful Petecio, who won gold at the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships.

"Just because I have beaten the number one doesn't make me more confident. I want to win the gold medal for my country, no one has ever done that." [Hidilyn Diaz won gold for the Philippines in the weightlifting elsewhere on Monday]

ARTINGSTALL OUT TO CEMENT HER NAME IN HISTORY

Jucielen Romeu was one of the other favourites to fall in the women's featherweight competition, going down by a unanimous points decision to Great Britain's Karriss Artingstall.

Artingstall took control of the bout with some controlled aggression and will now face Skye Nicolson, who beat Im Aeji, for a place in the semi-finals.

"Everybody wants gold," Artingstall said. "But I want my face cemented on that wall in Sheffield at boxing HQ, so they can look at my face for the rest of their lives.

"Seeds mean absolutely nothing to me, it's a number – one, twos, threes, whatever you want to call yourself. 

"Until you get in that ring and beat me, I'm not going to say you're better than me or you box better than me. For her to be the number three seed meant absolutely nothing."

Michaela Walsh and Khouloud Hlimi Ep Moulahi were the other two seeds to fall on Monday, losing to Irma Testa and Sena Irie respectively on points.

HOME HOPEFUL MORIWAKI GETS HIS REVENGE

Japan's Yuito Moriwaki beat Seyedshahin Mousavi with a split decision win in the men's middleweight division to remain on course for a medal on home soil.

Moriwaki, who lost to the same opponent last year, will now take on number one seed Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine in the last 16.

"The concept for this match was revenge," Moriwaki said. "I am glad I could achieve that today.

"I was able to come here mostly because of the support from people around me. I will not forget gratitude for them and do my best."

Also through to the last 16 are the likes of Tuoheta Erbieke and Troy Isley, the latter overcoming Vitali Bandarenka on points to set up a meeting with second seed Gleb Bakshi.

NO RIO REPEAT IN STORE FOR FINOL

Yoel Finol claimed a silver medal for Venezuela at the Rio Games but he will not have a chance to match or better that achievement five years on in the men's flyweight.

The 24-year-old dropped a three-round unanimous decision to Japan's Ryomei Tanaka, and a showdown with Hu Jianguan of China now awaits the latter.

"I knew he was the silver medallist for the Rio Olympic Games. He is also very tall, too," Tanaka said. 

"His weapon is a left straight punch. My weapon is also left straight. Having the same strength, I wanted to win that."

Galal Yafai, competing in his third Games for Great Britain, beat Koryan Soghomonyan with a third-round stoppage in one of the performances of the day.

The four seeded boxers – Amit Panghal, Billal Bennama, Yosvany Veitia and Mohamed Flissi – will enter the competition in the next round.

British and Irish Lions star Mako Vunipola and defence coach Steve Tandy have jumped to the tourists' defence after Rassie Erasmus took to social media to criticise their conduct in the first Test against South Africa on Saturday.

The Springboks' director of rugby posted and interacted with multiple posts on Twitter in the aftermath of the 22-17 defeat in Cape Town as he dissected what he thought to be a poor refereeing performance and an ill-disciplined outing from Warren Gatland's men.

The latest clip posted by Erasmus involved Ali Price's initial tackle on Cheslin Kolbe near the touchline before Vunipola lifts the South Africa winger off the turf – an act Erasmus cited as "reckless and dangerous".

The 2019 World Cup-winning coach added: "Cheslin is obviously played in the air and clearly not direct into touch!! More importantly for youngsters watching this clip!!!! Please never move or touch an injured player on the ground."

Vunipola, in contrast, insisted he was trying to inject energy by regaining the ball as the Lions looked to get back into proceedings, while the prop also offered Kolbe his apologies should he be injured.

"I remember just trying to get the ball," the Lions forward said. "I saw he had gone down and it was done in the heat of the moment. He seemed alright. He played on for the rest of the match.

"I guess if he was really hurt, it was a bit reckless. But I felt the collision wasn't that bad. We were behind at the time and we wanted some tempo. If I did hurt him, I apologise."

This is not the first time that Erasmus' social media posts have caused both controversy and confusion.

A day prior to the Vunipola accusation, Erasmus retweeted a post from an anonymous user which branded some of the match officials' calls as "questionable" against the reigning world champions.

Erasmus added to the highlights package of the officials' apparent mistakes: "Thanks. This is rugby - sometimes calls go for you and other times they don't."

Lions defence coach Tandy, who admitted his lack of social media literacy, responded by offering the match officials praise and insisted the tourists would lodge any complaints through the relevant governing bodies.

"Being a bit of a dinosaur myself and not being on Twitter and things, I'm hearing lots of hearsay," Tandy commented. "We thought the officials did a really good job at the weekend and if there's anything we need to bring up we'll go through the appropriate channels.

"Every team can go through micro details and analyse it. We do it ourselves, but it is then going through the appropriate channels, raising the ones that are relevant and not making it about every small detail, just making sure every one of the major ones is correct.

"It’s a tough job and I know everyone moans around certain decisions. There’s always frustration, and we get it as coaches. But if you can keep that, because it is a tough job out there for the officials.

"If we can keep to the proper channels, I think that is probably the best way around that because it’s a tough job for the players, the coaches, and it’s definitely tough for the referees too."

The Lions, who have now won the opening Test in four of their last seven tours, return to action on Saturday as they look to secure an unassailable lead in the three-Test series.

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) won artistic gymnastics men's team gold and 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya spoke of her desire to become a global icon after making history in Tokyo.

Denis Abliazin, David Belyavskiy, Artur Dalaloyan and Nikiti Nagornyy became the first European winners of the Olympic men's team event since 1996 on a tense Monday evening at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.

Nagornyy went into the final routine on the floor knowing he had to make up for lower scores from Abliazin and Dalaloyan.

He stepped up under huge pressure, ensuring the ROC (262.500) edged out Japan (262.397) as China (261.894) had to settle for bronze.

Dalaloyan tore his Achilles in mid-April, yet he made an incredible recovery to take his place on the top step of the podium.

He said: "After an injury like this, I appreciate the work I did even more. And now I know all of the work I did wasn't for nothing. This medal is absolutely priceless.

"When I came to Tokyo, I still couldn't do the vault or the floor exercise. On the third or fourth day I was able to perform a little bit."

Asked about watching Nagornyy on the floor with gold on the line, he added: "The nervousness was unreal. We prepared for everything, especially the floor exercise.

"Before the floor exercise, we were deciding if Nikita would do the easy routine or hard one; we decided to go with the easy and stable routine because we knew what score we needed. We knew we had enough and he would be absolutely clean."

NISHIYA WANTS WORLDWIDE FAME

The first Olympic gold medal in the women's skateboarding went the way of Japanese teenager Nishiya in the street event.

Nishiya, at the age of 13 years and 330 days, became the second-youngest Olympic gold medallist after American diver Marjorie Gestring took the top prize in the 1936 Games (13y 268d).

Her triumph completes a clean sweep for the host nation in the street event of the skateboarding – a sport introduced for these Games – after Yuto Horigome's success in the men's competition at Ariake Urban Sports Park on Sunday.

Nishiya kept her nerve after Rayssa Leal of Brazil failed to land her final jump – she would have been the youngest ever individual Olympic champion.

Having missed the landing with her first two tricks, Nishiya registered a score of 15.26 after nailing her final three attempts, bettering Leal's 14.64. Nishiya had only just got a gold medal around her neck when she spoke of her plan to secure another.

"I want to be the famous one who everyone in the world knows. I want to win at Paris 2024, too," she said.

PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF FOR DALEY AS GB THRIVE

British diver Tom Daley won his first Olympic gold medal in his fourth Games, teaming up Matty Lee to take the synchronised 10m platform title.

The tears flowed for Daley, 27, on the podium after he and Lee ended a China dominance of this event that stretched back to the Sydney 2000 Games.

Two-time bronze medallist Daley and Lee finished with a score of 471.81, just 1.23 points ahead of silver medallists Cao Yuan and Aisen Chen at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, where ROC's Aleksandr Bondar and Viktor Minibaev took bronze.

Daley said: "To finally have this gold medal... I’ve been diving for 20 years, it’s my fourth Olympic Games. Lots of people would have counted me out, being the older person, but I'm in the best shape physically.

"I still can't honestly believe what is happening. That moment, being about to be announced as Olympic champions, I was gone. I was blubbering."

It was also a dream day for Tom Pidcock, who became the first Brit to win an Olympic medal of any kind in mountain biking and made it a gold.

There was no surprise when Adam Peaty became the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic swimming title in the 100 metres breaststroke, while Lauren Williams (taekwondo) and Alex Yee (triathlon) won silver medals.

DIAZ LIFTS HERSELF INTO THE RECORD BOOKS

Hidilyn Diaz put her name in the record books by becoming the first athlete from the Philippines to win an Olympic gold medal.

Diaz took the 55-kilogram weightlifting title on a historic day at the Tokyo International Forum,

She did so in style, finishing with an Olympic record total lift of 224kg, overtaking world record holder Qiuyun Liao of China with her final lift in the clean and jerk.

Zulfiya Chinshanlo took bronze for Kazakhstan.

Barcelona and Neymar have reached an amicable agreement to end their long-running dispute over the Paris Saint-Germain forward's contract.

The Brazil international had claimed he was owed €43.6million in unpaid bonuses by LaLiga giants Barca.

Neymar insisted he was due the huge sum as a loyalty bonus, having signed a new five-year contract with the Catalan club in 2016.

A judge ruled in Barca's favour in June 2020, ordering Neymar to pay his former employers €6.7m.

Barca on Monday revealed the case is now closed.

A club statement said: "FC Barcelona announces that it has extrajudicially and closed amicably different labour and civil litigations that had opened with the Brazilian player Neymar da Silva Santos Junior.

"Thus, the club and the player have signed a transactional agreement to end legal proceedings that were pending between both parties: three claims in the labour jurisdiction and one civil proceeding."

Neymar joined PSG for a world record fee of €222m in August 2017.