WARNING: The Rio 2016 Olympics may cause drowsiness, they may leave you unfit to operate heavy machinery – but the sleepless nights on the sofa are a small price to pay to witness sporting history being made.

As an Arsenal fan who watches Newport County AFC every week, and also has a fondness for AFC Bournemouth and Cardiff City, the British gold rush has been a welcome distraction from the return of the football season.

The Exiles finally produced a first win since March on Saturday but it is Team GB’s simply stunning success in Brazil that has really helped me to put concerns about the Gunners’ leaky defence to the back of my mind.

It will be difficult to surpass the sheer excitement and drama of watching the incomparable Mo Farah storm to his third Olympic gold in the early hours of Sunday morning or Andy Murray battle to his second 24 hours later.

Add in the Usain Bolt show and the remarkable achievements of gymnast Max Whitlock and golf star Justin Rose, and the Brits’ dominance on the rowing lake and in the velodrome, and it has been a momentous few days.

We’ve seen one cycling legend – Sir Bradley Wiggins – bid farewell to the Olympics and heralded the crowing of his replacement in Jason Kenny.

And, as if all of that wasn’t enough, we can also celebrate the part that our Welsh sporting stars have played in this great success story.

Cardiff cycling duo Owain Doull, aged 23, and Elinor Barker, just 21, have both been integral to the men’s and women’s team sprint golds.

And they were not just golds but phenomenal rides in world record times.

Jazz Carlin has enjoyed an incredible Games with two silver medals in the pool, finishing behind only the amazing American Katie Ledecky on both occasions.

And James Davies and Brynmawr boy Sam Cross helped GB to a surprise spot in the rugby sevens final before they ran into the unstoppable and irrepressible Fijians and had to settle for silver.

But the real success story from Rio, as far as the Argus is concerned, looks like being Abergavenny cycling star Becky James.

The 24-year-old has already claimed a superb silver in Saturday’s keirin race – just running out of track in her thrilling attempt to overhaul eventual winner Elis Ligtlee on the line.

And the signs are that she could add a gold in the women’s sprint tonight.

Cheered on by her family and boyfriend – Wales rugby star George North – at trackside, James set an Olympic record of 10.72 seconds in the first preliminary round on Sunday to qualify in first place.

And she has so far cruised past Azerbaijan’s Olga Ismayilova to and Virginie Cueff of France to go into today’s final stages as the favourite.

If all goes to plan she will be in quarter-final action from 2pm this afternoon, racing in the semi-finals from 8pm and hopefully going for gold sometime before 10.30pm.

James still has a lot of hard work ahead of her today to make her dreams of Olympic gold come true but if she does get to clamber to the top step of the podium tonight it’s hard to think of anyone more deserving of their moment in the spotlight.

The former King Henry VIII School pupil, who started racing at Abergavenny Road Club as a youngster, has certainly not had an easy ride in her career.

She had to pull out of the 2008 European Junior Championships after contracting glandular fever and, despite winning a silver and a bronze for Wales at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, she just missed out on competing at London 2012 after having to have her appendix removed.

James got over that disappointment in spectacular style with two golds at the World Track Championships in Minsk in February 2013 and looked set for a glittering future as the natural successor to Victoria Pendleton’s crown as queen of the sprints.

But the past two years have seen her rocked by a cancer scare and a knee injury that caused her to doubt if she’d ever compete again at the top level.

In the 2014 World Championships she claimed bronze in the team sprint and keirin but was then forced to have an operation to remove abnormal cells discovered during a routine cervical smear test.

That was followed by a serious injury in her left knee that led to her missing the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

James admits that she thought about quitting the sport she loved as she struggled to even walk up and down the stairs at home.

But after a protracted recovery, and having ridden a full winter season with World Cup races in New Zealand and Hong Kong, James has come back looking stronger than ever.

A bronze at the world champs in London in March showed she was back on track and her silver this week was beyond what she expected.

If she can go one better tonight the perfect comeback story will be complete.

Whatever happens it will end in tears. Hopefully it will be tears of joy for Gwent’s golden girl.