No meeting fans, no eating out and no sightseeing — life in the Tokyo Olympic COVID-19 “bubble” could be “challenging” for athletes, the first team to arrive in Japan have warned.
Australia softball head coach Laing Harrow told reporters that his players have been watching Netflix and hitting the gym in a bid to “break the boredom” after landing in Japan on June 1.
The players “seem to be in a very good headspace,” he said, despite the severe restrictions, which organizers insist are necessary to hold the Games safely.
Photo: Reuters
However, he warned that other teams could find life difficult at the postponed Games, with cabin fever a potential risk for athletes who do not come prepared.
“It is challenging,” Harrow said in an online interview from the team’s base in Ota City, about 100km north of Tokyo. “If it’s cards or games that you can play on phones or whatever, you do need to break the boredom up a little, because there is a fair bit of downtime.”
Harrow said that his players and staff are glad to be training again after spending their first three days cooped up in the hotel.
“We’re quite lucky, because we do play games and we’re at the grounds for a good five, six hours. That takes up a fair chunk of the day,” he said.
However, he said it was disappointing that the team are barred from meeting Japanese fans.
The only interaction they have with locals is when government officials come to their hotel every morning to test for COVID-19, he said.
“It is a shame, because we’ve been to Ota City a couple of times and it’s always great to interact with the locals, but we can’t do anything about it,” he said. “We just have to maintain this bubble and we can’t put anyone in jeopardy.”
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS