Medals for the 2020 Olympics will be made from recycled electronic devices, the Tokyo Organising Committee has announced.

It comes after millions of smartphones and tons of old digital products were donated.

Nearly 50,000 tons of devices, including cameras, games consoles and laptops, plus more than five million smartphones, were collected for the Old Metals New Medals project across Japan over 18 months since it opened.

Medals for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will be made from recycled electronic devices

‘The project has offered the public an opportunity to play an important role in the games’ preparations, at the same time drawing attention to the importance of sustainability under the Tokyo 2020 slogan Be Better, Together – for the Planet and the People,’ said the committee in a statement.

A Team GB spokesman said: ‘We think this is an excellent initiative and it is something we have been supporting through our frequent visits to Tokyo, encouraging both recycling and people to support the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.’

The Japanese public donated their old devices at shops and municipal authorities across the country before they were dismantled, smelted, refined and turned into the raw metals.

British Olympic swimemr Ben Proud thinks ‘our generation needs to think about the future’

Some 2,700kg of bronze had already been extracted by June 2018 and by October there had been 28.4kg of gold and 3,500kg of silver extracted from the donations.

‘We’re getting to the point where our generation needs to think about the next step, our future … so being able to recycle these phones that maybe get lost in cupboards or don’t get touched for years is a great way to re-utilise them and make them into something that’s going to be as important,’ British Olympic swimmer Ben Proud said when the project first launched.

The medal designs will be unveiled in summer 2019. 

It will take more than a disgruntled Asmir Begovic to raise Eddie Howe’s stress levels after the Bournemouth manager revealed he has taken up meditation to clear his mind.

As Sportsmail revealed earlier this week, Howe admits holding one-to-one talks with the unhappy Begovic to explain why he has lost his goalkeeping place to veteran Artur Boruc, 38.

The meeting has raised serious doubts over Begovic’s long-term future and Howe refused to hand the £10m Bosnian any guarantees.

Eddie Howe recently revealed that he meditates before every Bournemouth training session

Asmir Begovic has been dropped and held one-on-one conversations with the manager

Howe, speaking ahead of Bournemouth’s visit to title-chasing Liverpool, said: ‘The future will be dictated by Asmir, not by me.

‘I signed the player, I like the player and have got a lot of respect for Asmir as a guy and a player but that will be dictated by him.

‘What has happened will be a normal occurrence at every Premier League club.. I have had a lot of discussions with the players who are not playing.

‘I am very happy with where Asmir is at. He has trained excellently and that is the most important thing.

‘I try to have that daily contact with all my players, that is very important as well as the feedback side of it.’

Artur Boruc is preferred as the No 1 and is in line to start for the Cherries against Liverpool

Ironically given the heated nature of discussions with Begovic, Howe on Friday admitted he meditates every morning before training.

Howe said: ‘It is something we encourage the players to do and is something I have tried this season.

‘To try and find the ability and capacity in your mind to push yourself further and work smarter. How are you going to do that? Meditation is one way.

‘I don’t use a teacher I use an app and recommend it highly.. They are ten-minute little exercises and something that I do every morning. I think it has helped me this year.’

Connor Goldson claims ‘petty’ Aberdeen hung pictures of their Betfred Cup semi-final triumph on the Pittodrie walls to rile Rangers.

Faced with images of Aberdeen’s Hampden triumph as they walked to the away dressing room, Ibrox players responded with a rousing 4-2 victory followed by raucous celebrations.

It was later denied that Derek McInnes entered the away dressing room to order the Rangers players to keep the noise down. But it’s understood McInnes was surprised by the intensity of the celebrations and made his feelings known to Steven Gerrard.

Connor Goldson claims Aberdeen hung pictures of their semi-final triumph on the walls

Goldson claims the move was self-defeating and admitted Rangers players perceived the semi-final pictures as an act of pre-match provocation.

‘I don’t know if their thinking was that it was going to bring us down, or we would look at them and get emotional before the game. But we looked at them and it gave us more motivation before the game.

‘It was a bit petty. Do you really have pictures on your wall of a semi-final win when you didn’t win the final? I don’t know. I think they did it just because the game was against us.

‘They maybe thought we would look at the photos and they would bring back bad memories or we wouldn’t like to play against them again.

‘That’s the only reason I think it can be because you don’t put up pictures of a semi-final if you lose the final.

‘We thought it was petty and we knew what they were doing. It gave us that bit of motivation.

‘Whether the pictures were there or not we were going there to get three points. But we were walking down the corridor, walking into the stadium, and it’s not something you expect to see.

It was later denied that Derek McInnes entered the away dressing room on Wednesday

‘We spoke about it more as a laughing matter. It wasn’t spoken about as in: “Oh there’s pictures on the wall, we need to make sure we win”. It was more “have you seen what they’ve done?”.’ Certainly the experience was a new one for Goldson, a £3.5million signing from Brighton.

‘I think it is a bit different when you play for Rangers compared to Brighton and Shrewsbury,’ he said. ‘Maybe they thought it would give them a mental edge but we proved we were strong.’ Assistant boss Gary McAllister denied suggestions the Rangers celebrations were in any way over-exuberant although he described the atmosphere around Pittodrie as ‘feisty’ after Alfredo Morelos and Dons defender Scott McKenna were handed red cards.

‘I’ve seen the little quotes that are flying around,’ said the former Scotland captain. ‘The dressing rooms are in very close proximity at Pittodrie.

‘We celebrated as much at Livvy as we did at Pittodrie, the three points were as important. It’s a big game, there was loads of emotion, we enjoyed the result in a very competitive game.’ The regret over the Morelos and McKenna incident was the fact it diverted attention from a terrific contest. Six goals, a frantic tempo, a crowd of close to 20,000 and high stakes contributed to a game which earned praise from all over the UK.

‘I have fielded loads of calls from friends south of the border saying how good a game it was from a neutral’s point of view,’ added McAllister.

Goldson claims the move was self-defeating and admitted the pictures helped them

‘It was a game with good goals, good play and two teams on the front foot trying to get the right result.

‘There were brave decisions by Aberdeen trying to get something from it and then Jermain Defoe came on at the end and took it away from Aberdeen.’ The satisfaction of victory will have been tempered with last night’s news that Morelos will serve a three-match ban after his appeal was rejected by the SFA, ruling him out of tonight’s tricky Scottish Cup tie in Kilmarnock.

On top of that, goalkeeper Allan McGregor is facing a two-game ban after being issued with a notice of complaint for kicking out at Aberdeen midfielder Lewis Ferguson.

‘We need all our big players for all the big games and Kilmarnock is as big as the game at Pittodrie,’ said McAllister before the news broke yesterday.

‘At this club you go into every competition trying to win it and this is no different. The Scottish Cup is a big target for us.’ Six points behind Celtic in the Premiership, the title race is far from over. Nevertheless, the Scottish Cup offers the greatest chance of Rangers ending their eight-year wait for a major domestic trophy.

Beaten 2-1 at Rugby Park in a Premiership clash on their last visit, McAllister has called on the players to avoid a repeat of the catastrophic unforced defensive mistakes which cost them an early lead on Defoe’s debut.

‘It’s about keeping errors to a minimum and it’s about staying focused,’ said Gerrard’s No2.

‘We know Killie pretty well and they will be hard to break down. They are a good side and their results have shown that.’ McAllister concluded: ‘They all feel like big games (at this stage of the season). But this is a cup-tie and we want a good run.’