Tokyo Olympics linked COVID cases go past 100, organisers announce 19 new cases
Tokyo: The COVID-19 cases associated with the Olympic Games breached the 100-mark on Friday with the announcement of 19 new infections and the Czech contingent seemed among the worst hit after a fourth athlete -- road cyclist Michal Schlegel -- tested positive for the virus.
The Tokyo Olympic organisers, in their daily COVID-19 update, announced that three athletes, 10 Games-concerned personnel, three mediapersons and as many contractors associated with the event have been found positive.
The total number of cases directly linked to the Games stood at 106 on Friday with 11 of them athletes.
The Czech contingent reported its sixth overall case even as it investigated breach of health safety protocols while travelling to Japan.
"The fourth athlete and the sixth Czech member of the team, who did not avoid a positive test for COVID-19 at the Tokyo Olympics, is road cyclist Michal Schlegel," the country's National Olympic Committee (NOC) stated.
"His positive antigen test was also confirmed by PCR analysis in a cycling village in Izu. Now Schlegel is back in the hotel for road cyclists in isolation," it added.
Schlegel was to compete on Saturday but "will not make it to the Olympic road race".
The other athletes in the Czech contingent to have tested positive are beach volleyball players Ondrej Perusic and Marketa Nausch, and table tennis player Pavel Sirucek.
"Other road cycling representatives Tereza Neumanova and Michael Kukrle also went to Tokyo for testing," the Czech NOC stated.
"Zdenek Stybar stayed in the cycling hotel, as he was not on board a charter flight from Prague and arrived in Japan two days later."
On Thursday, the Czech contingent's doctor Vlastimil Voracek also tested positive for the virus.
Before that, a beach volleyball coach had also returned a positive test at the Games village.
In other contingents, Chilean Taekwondo player Fernanda Aguirre, Dutch skateboarder Candy Jacobs and taekwondo hope Reshmie Oogink are among the cases that have reported among athletes who have landed in Tokyo and forced to withdraw from their events.
Previously, two South African footballers, and an American beach volleyball player had also tested positive while being here. Some athletes have been forced to withdraw even before reaching the city, found positive in tests conducted in their home countries.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
