Some of the world’s toughest gun-control laws are posing unusual problems at the Tokyo Olympic Games, from the coach who cannot touch a firearm to strict limits on ammunition.
For Goran Maksimovic, the extent of Japan’s restrictions only became clear when he arrived to coach the national team and found he could not lay a finger on a gun, let alone fire one.
“I was very surprised in the beginning,” said the Serb, a 10m air rifle gold medalist at the 1988 Seoul Games.
Photo: AFP
Just 500 people can own an air pistol in Japan, whose history of controlling guns and other weapons dates back hundreds of years.
Japan’s gun laws are among the strictest in the world and annual deaths from firearms in the country of 125 million people are regularly in single figures.
Getting a gun license is a long and complicated process even for Japanese citizens, who must first get a recommendation from a shooting association and then undergo strict police checks.
It is even more difficult for foreigners, with Maksimovic having to use Japanese assistants as intermediaries when he is coaching.
During the Games, coaches are to be allowed to help with “minor repairs,” as long as the athlete is holding the weapon.
The rules have been relaxed so that technical officials can handle firearms and inspect ammunition under International Shooting Sport Federation rules.
Working around local legislation has been a complicated process, National Rifle Association of Japan president Kiichiro Matsumaru said.
“We were involved in negotiations with the police and government so that teams coming here wouldn’t have any complaints,” he said.
Japan has a limit of 800 rounds of ammunition per shooter at any one time, fewer than at previous Olympics and other international competitions.
Organizers had to come up with a “complex plan” to stop competitors from potentially running out of bullets, Tokyo Games shooting sport manager Peter Underhill said.
“This has been introduced specifically for Tokyo, to help mitigate the effects of this particular piece of legislation,” he said.
There will be a few options, including shipping bullets to Japan through a designated contractor, but the rounds must be stored outside the shooting venue and brought in to replenish supplies.
Teams will also be able to buy ammunition at the Olympic shooting range, though they’ll have to settle for whatever is available, which may differ from their usual specifications.
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
Mitch Brown finally had enough as he watched unfolding coverage of yet another case of homophobic abuse in the Australian Football League (AFL), and decided it was time to change the narrative. Brown contacted the Daily Aus with a message that the online news site published yesterday: “I played in the AFL for 10 years for the West Coast Eagles, and I’m a bisexual man.” In almost 130 years of top-flight competition in Australia’s homegrown football code, no past or active male player had publicly identified as bisexual or gay. Aussie Rules was a long way behind other types of
RSS