Tokyo venues fail Covid test

The Tokyo Olympics have been hit by a handful of postponements and cancellations of test events and qualifiers with less than four months to go until the Games are due to begin.

The Olympic pool in Tokyo has failed to meet FINA’s Covid requirements

The Tokyo Olympics have been hit by a handful of postponements and cancellations of test events and qualifiers with less than four months to go until the Games are due to begin.

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) has cancelled Olympic qualifying events scheduled to take place in Tokyo over the next few weeks, citing dissatisfaction with the organisers’ COVID-19 strategy.

This includes the Diving World Cup, which was due to be held from April 18 as an official test event for the Games, featuring top divers including Tom Daley and the defending Olympic 3m synchro champion Jack Laugher. It is understood that FINA is considering alternative locations to host the event at a later date.

According to the calendar on its website, FINA has also cancelled the artistic swimming qualifiers and the marathon swimming qualifiers, both due to take place in Japan in May.

The BBC reported that a letter sent by the federation described information about the organisers’ COVID-19 strategy as “worrying” and said that it regretted this “drastic decision” to cancel the events. It also said that FINA believed that the coronavirus plan from Tokyo “will not properly ensure health and protection guarantees to participants”.

It is understood that FINA was dissatisfied with aspects of the “COVID-19 countermeasures” including a new three-day quarantine and extra costs that would fall on the federation.

There were also concerns around the issuing of visas to some national federations by Japanese embassies. Seiko Hashimoto, president of Tokyo 2020, said: “I believe there are still many variants which need to be discussed and we haven’t been filled in with all the details yet so we would like to continue listening to them (FINA).”

The Olympic organisers made the decision to postpone a water polo test event due to take place this weekend and a spokesperson for the organising committee said that the authorities in Osaka had asked that their leg of the Olympic torch relay be cancelled in light of rising COVID-19 cases in the area. The relay began in March and was due to reach the city in the middle of this month.

The news comes as North Korea announced they would not take part in the Games, due to begin on July 23 after being postponed last year, to protect their athletes from COVID-19 — the first country to take such a step.

THE TIMES