Team GB's Dominic King finished 51st in the men's 50-kilometre walk at the Olympics as he came home in four hours, 15 minutes and 05 seconds.
Despite being the last man to cross the line, the British athlete received a huge cheer from the crowd and had even been exchanging hi-fives on the last two-kilometre lap.
Russia's Sergey Kirdyapkin won the gold medal in an Olympic record time.
The former world champion finished in 3hrs 15mins 35secs, almost a minute clear of Australia's Jared Tallent, who took silver for the second Games in succession, with China's Si Tianfeng claiming bronze.
"I didn't realise how fast I was walking so when I started to hi-five the first lot of people on the lap my arm soon became pretty tired after about 50m and I realised I had another 1,950m to go, so not everyone got a hi-five," 29-year-old King said.
"But I fully appreciate the support that came out today, not just supporting myself, but everyone in the field. It's a gruelling event and that can lift you."
King was examined by medical staff as a precaution after a race he admitted equates to more than four hours of agony, but was more concerned by an early warning he was handed during the early stages.
"Unfortunately I've had issues in the past with getting disqualified and I've been working on it for the last two years," he added.
"My priority was always to finish and the second priority was to get a personal best. I didn't do too bad today, it was my third fastest time ever and I had to get an eight-minute personal best just to qualify so medals were never going to be in the equation, but I feel like I got my own medal just by getting the biggest cheer of the day."