India’s contingent checks in at Tokyo, smooth ride to Games Village
Tokyo, Jul 18 (PTI): Excited and cautious in equal measure, the first batch of athletes from India’s Olympic contingent arrived in Tokyo on Sunday, clearing the exhaustive COVID-19 related protocols at the airport before entering the Games village on a day when two sportsperons staying there tested positive for the dreaded virus.
The 88-strong contingent from India, which left last night after a grand send-off, was joined by the shooters and boxers who were training in Italy and Croatia till Saturday.
The group travelling from India included archers, badminton players, table tennis players, both the men’s and women’s hockey teams, and qualifiers from judo, gymnastics, and swimming among others. They landed in the Japanese capital aboard a chartered Air India flight from New Delhi. “It was a six hour wait at the (Tokyo) airport where we underwent COVID-19 tests but that was expected. All came out clear and we have checked into the Games village. All smooth so far,” a contingent member told PTI. The group included stars such as world champion shuttler P V Sindhu, six-time world champion boxer M C Mary Kom, world no.1 boxer Amit Panghal, world no.1 archer Deepika Kumari and TT player Manika Batra among others. The Indians arrived on a day when two athletes staying at the Games village and one at a designated hotel were confirmed COVID positive by the organisers, who insisted that they are prepared for some cases given the influx of people in the city.
The Indians were duly masked, some of them even wore face shields as they went through the paperwork at the airport before boarding buses to the Games Village.
The total number of Games-related COVID cases have now risen to 55 as per the OC records. The Games will be held behind closed doors as infections soar in the Japanese capital, which is recording more than 1,000 cases per day for the past few days.
COVID scare at Olympics: 3 athletes test positive for COVID-19
Tokyo: Three athletes, two of them staying at the Olympic Village, have tested positive for COVID-19, the Games Organising Committee announced on Sunday, the development adding to the scepticism around the troubled event which opens on July 23. It is the first instance of athletes staying at the village catching the infection. Their identities have not been revealed by the organisers. The third infected athlete is staying at a designated Games hotel. A total of 10 cases were detected on the day, including five “Games concerned personnel”, one contractor, and a journalist, according to the COVID-19 Positive Case List uploaded by the OC here. The total number of Games-related COVID cases have now risen to 55 as per the OC records. “When there is a positive COVID 19 case – it means action. There is a clear procedure to identify close contacts. A case is not just data in a spread sheet but leads to action, including immediate follow-up testing,” International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi stated. “We can safely say that 40,000 COVID 19 tests have been carried out before coming to Japan for 18,000 Games participants. Then there is the screening on the airport followed by regular screening, testing for athletes every day,” he added. The organisers did not specify whether the two infected athletes staying at the village will be quarantined elsewhere. “Since 1 July more than 18,000 games participants arrived from overseas. All of them had at least 2 negative tests before arrival. When they arrived, they had another test. When they are here, there is a strict testing regime in place,” said Pierre Ducrey, IOC Games Operations Director. “The participants of the Olympic Games are the most controlled population in the world,” he added. The development comes a day after a non-athlete at the Village tested positive for the dreaded virus and was shifted out of the premises.
