Race walking is bound by strict rules. Athletes must have one foot in contact with the floor at all times, and their advancing leg must straighten from the point it touches the ground until it passes under the body – differentiating the movement from running.

Competitors try to push the limits of protocol, but remain at constant risk of disqualification by a series of eagle-eyed judges who raise yellow paddles for penalties – three from different officials and you are out.

The winner is the athlete whose torso crosses the finish line first.

“I think it’s probably closer to an art form,” says Wilkinson. “It maybe should have comparisons to dressage. It’s an appearance. The judges are looking for a flow across the ground, an effortlessness.

“It’s a sport of blending in. If you’re the one that stands out, whether that’s the colour of your shoes or your hair, the judges will notice, but then when you have the time to celebrate, you can stand out.”

At June’s national championships in Manchester, Wilkinson smashed the British 10km record in 38:43.91, just four months after the 27-year-old suffered a serious ankle injury.

We're down to a leading pack of four but it's the early leader, Brazil's Caio Bonfim, who has a slight advantage.

Bonfim is certainly not waving the other athletes on now, he's trying his best to speed away from them.

GB's Callum Wilkinson is currently down in 19th.

Image source, Getty Images

It's a new day at the Paris Olympics which means another sport gets underway in France!

We head south-west of Paris to the Albatros golf course, where Europe triumphantly won the 2018 Ryder Cup 17.5-10.5.

British men's duo Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick will be representing Team GB. Although Fleetwood hasn't won a major he won all four of his Ryder Cup games at the Albatros course in 2018.

Alongside Fleetwood is 2022 US Open winner Fitzpatrick, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live he said, "A major is number one in a golfers world.

"Outside of that you have got a few big events on the PGA tour and European tour that you target at the start of the calendar year, but when you have an Olympics that goes in with them."

The action began at 08:00 BST with France's Victor Perez, Matthias Schmidt of Germany and Chinese Taipei's CT Pan are currently on the first.

Fleetwood tees off at 08:44, Team Ireland's Rory McIlroy at 09:11 and Fitzpatrick goes at 11:06.

Image source, Getty Images

Italian defending champion Massimo Stano is leading the way after an hour.

He's being tracked hard by Spain's Alvaro Martin and Paul McGrath.

Remember, no man has ever won this race twice so Stano would be creating history.

BBC One

Join us over on BBC One as our live coverage of the Olympics is getting under way.

We'll have plenty more medal action coming your way with Great Britain going for gold in both the men's and women's four in the rowing finals from 10:50 BST.

Callum Wilkinson says he has given up attempting to explain what might be the most misunderstood sport at the Olympic Games - the race walk.

“It’s hugely under-respected,” Wilkinson said of the first athletics event on the Paris Olympic programme.

“There are negative comments about it and I kind of leave them completely alone because it’s very hard to explain to someone the level of training, the commitment.

“You train as hard as anyone in the athletics community. You’re up there with the marathon runners in training time, time spent away from family, and then add in technique and concentration. For an hour and 20 minutes, you have to be dialled in focus. A two-minute slip-up and you’re out of the race.

“I know for a fact that an athlete from GB at the European indoors liked a comment saying, ‘what a stupid event’. Then you see them competing, team-mates.

“I could really fight for it, but I don’t think there’s much point in trying to explain to someone that’s going to fire away a throwaway comment on social media.”

Race walking debuted as a men-only Olympic event at the 1904 Games in St Louis as a half-mile race, part of the 10-event ‘all-around championship’ – an ancestor of the decathlon.

The 20km race walk has been a men’s Olympic event since 1956 and since the 2000 games in Sydney for women, who competed at half that distance beginning at Barcelona 1992. New in Paris is a mixed relay.

Image source, Getty Images

• The men's 20km walk got underway at 07:00 BST after a 30-minute delay because of thunderstorms in the Paris area.
• The women's 20km walk starts at 08:50.
• Archer Bryony Pitman takes on Mexico's Angela Ruiz at 09:09 in the last 64 of the women's individual event. If she wins, she will be in action in the next round at 09:35.
• Britain's Ben Maher, Scott Brash and Harry Charles will aim to qualify for the team equestrian jumping final from 10:00.
• In the rowing, there are four golds on offer including Helen Glover bidding for a third Olympic title in the women's four at 10:50.

I did say I had hope of a medal for Great Britain's Callum Wilkinson but that hope that now drastically dwindled.

He's now away from the lead group as they make their move with the end of the racing fast approaching.

Image source, Getty Images

Great Britain's women's four rowing team have been on BBC Breakfast this morning after winning gold medals, beating the Netherlands in the final by 15 100ths of a second.

Georgie Brayshaw: "It's starting to sink in this morning, what's just happened. Yesterday I was still in the clouds, but I'm starting to realise we've just become Olympic champions and it feels really good. I'm really proud of us.

On being given the medals by Princess Anne: "It was such an honour to met her. We also met her at the British Embassy a few days ago and we were just star struck, it was amazing. She said something to us like 'you left that a bit late' but she was so friendly, had a nice drink with us, sent us loads of congratulations and what a lovely lady. Amazing.

On wearing the medal: "I love to wear it all of the time. I definitely want to to keep it safe. I think Lauren slept with it on last night. I touched when I woke up at 5am this morning, just to check it actually happened. It was there and heavy.

On the achievement: "It set in this morning, it's just incredible."

Lauren Henry "Where I sit in the bow of the boat, I can kind of feel most where we are in the race. I had this thought when we got over the line I felt I was slightly ahead of the Dutch bow girl, but then I wanted to sit and wait until it came up on the big screen that we'd won before I started celebrating, I couldn't start until I knew for certain. I was the first one, because I knew how close it was, I looked straight that screen to see, I saw it popped up with GBR with a one by our name and I was just pointing to it like 'yeah, we've done it'. It just went down the boat and it was just the most ecstatic, amazing moment. I will cherish that for ever and ever.

On the medal: "I slept with it on the pillow next to me, just because when I slept and woke up, I wanted to feel like 'is this a dream or not'."

More reaction from Great Britain's gold in the rowing yesterday is coming up as Georgia Brayshaw and Lauren Henry chat to BBC Breakfast.

These women must be absolutely loving life right now.

We're into the final 8km and Great Brtain's Callum Wilkinson is four seconds off the lead.

I have hope of a medal here.

It's China's Zhang Jun who is currently holding the lead.

Image source, Getty Images

I remember being younger and thinking how easy this walking event must be but how wrong was I?

These athletes are walking incredibly fast and the technique needed to keep one foot on the ground at all times is not easy at all.

To top that off, it humidity level in Paris is at a whopping 94% and many of the athletes have opted to wear hats to keep the sweat dripping into their face.

Tough going.

Image source, Getty Images

Great Britain's women's four rowing team have been on BBC Breakfast this morning after winning gold medals on Wednesday, beating the Netherlands in the final by 15 100ths of a second.

Hannah Scott when asked whose fault it was for such a dramatic late finish: "I call the plans so maybe I'm taking that one on. That was the plan, I thought I'd go for the crowd pleaser there. People call rowing a bit boring so we just thought we'd keep everyone on their toes. I call the race plan and I was confident. I was calling when before we went through the Dutch, we've got this and the girls were loose, we were calm, you don't panic in an emergency and that's what we did and we went through. For that reason, I am just so proud of what we did and it was so cool. Yes, I'm taking that charge of that one.

On the medal: "It also makes quite the weapon as well, you could do some damage with this. I thought it was going to give me a black eye at one point.

On the achievement: "To be honest, I haven't slept, I haven't woke up yet. I've been awake all night.

The Great British rowing team of Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw shocked everyone when they pipped the Netherlands to the gold medal right on the line in incredible scenes.

It really was spectacular to witness.

A happy Scott has been talking to BBC Breakfast this morning and we'll have those quotes with you imminently.

Gold medal events:

Artistic gymnastics (women's individual all-around), athletics (men's and women's 20km race walk), canoe slalom (men K1), fencing (women's foil team), judo (women's -78kg, men's -100kg), rowing (women's double sculls, men's double sculls, women's coxless four, men's coxless four), sailing (men's and women's skiff), shooting (men's 50m rifle 3 positions) and swimming (women's 200m fly, men's 200m back, women's 200m breast, women's 4x200m free relay).

Highlights

British rowers are used to heaps of gold medals – more than 30 of them in Olympic rowing. GB were the top rowing nation at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016. Then came Tokyo and not one gold. They were 14th in the rowing medal table, which was a shock.

Team GB won women's quadruple sculls gold on Wednesday to bring hope for a better Games in Paris. On Thursday, Helen Glover will hope to lead an impressive women’s four in the final at 10:50, while the men’s four won the world title in both 2022 and 2023. Their final is at 11:10. The space of about half an hour could play a huge role in deciding if this Olympic regatta is a GB return to form.

The rowers are not the only ones who had a Tokyo to forget. Joe Clarke did not make the team despite being the defending Olympic champion in K1 slalom canoeing. Now, he is back and will hope to be a big factor in the Paris final from 16:30.

The women’s all-around gymnastics final at 17:15 could see some remarkable history being made. If they are both healthy and nominated for this event, American duo Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee could make this the first women’s all-around final in which the past two Olympic champions have competed. Biles won in 2016, followed by Lee in 2020. If either of them wins gold, they will be the first woman to win multiple Olympic all-around titles since Vera Caslavska in 1964 and 1968.

They're through 8km now and we have another new leader in Italy's Massimo Stano.

That lead group is about 30 walkers strong with Team GB's Callum Wilkinson among them.

He's 24th, two seconds off the lead with 12km to go.

What a wonderful Wednesday. For those who like their recaps all in one place, here's a summary of the best moments...

• A fantastic night of swimming capped the day as French superstar Leon Marchand won two golds, making it three for the Games
• USA's Katie Ledecky, a legend of the pool, won the women's 1500m freestyle for the 12th Olympic medal of her career and eighth gold
• There was another flurry of medals for GB, with two golds and five in total moving them to fifth in the medal table

• After a thrilling finish in the triathlon, Alex Yee won the gold medal for Team GB (see video above). In the women's race, Beth Potter won bronze.
• Meanwhile, there was also rowing gold for Lauren Henry, Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott and Georgina Brayshaw in the women's quadruple sculls. That came after a dramatic photo finish.
• There was silver for Kieran Reilly in the men's BMX in a thrilling final.
• And it was diving bronze for Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson, who triumphed in the women's synchronised 10m platform.

Ready for more of the same?

Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport in Paris

Lewis Richardson kept Team GB's hopes alive in the Olympic boxing ring with a split-decision victory over Serbia's Vakhid Abbasov.

Of the six British boxers in Paris, five exited in the first round - a far cry from the Tokyo Games three years ago, when GB won six medals, including two golds, for their biggest Olympic haul since 1920.

Light-middleweight Richardson remains in the hunt, though, after edging to a 3-2 decision against 2022 European champion Abbasov.

Richardson, 27, will face Jordan's Zeyad Eashash in the quarter-finals.

Read the full report here

Image source, Getty Images

Britain's Emma Wilson tops the windsurfing table with two days left, with Israel’s Sharon Kantor second.

Wilson looks well placed for a medal after winning seven of the 11 completed races.

On Wednesday, the debut women's windsurfing marathon was abandoned as wind faded.

There are five more races planned on Thursday, before the quarter-final, semi-final and final stages on Friday.

Wilson would progress straight to the final - and a guaranteed silver medal - if she finishes top of the rankings.

Image source, Getty Images

Katie Boulter and Heather Watson advanced to the quarter-finals of the Olympic tennis women's doubles with a straight-set win over Brazilian duo Beatriz Haddad Maia and Luisa Stefani.

After two dramatic wins from compatriots Andy Murray and Dan Evans in the men's doubles, this was much more straightforward for GB's women as they won 6-3 6-4.

The British duo struck early in the first set and held on to their advantage comfortably, but were challenged in the second set as the Brazilians put the pressure on, forcing them to save two break points.

The pair responded strongly, breaking the Brazilians and saving more break points before closing out the match on their third match point. Boulter used her power from the baseline, leaving Watson to show off her speed and agility at the net.

They will next face the third seeds from Italy - Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, who have both reached the French Open semi-finals.