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Crowd-free opening ceremony, Czechia wants more athletes vaccinated: Olympics News
Simon Ormiston
Asia;Japan

· Japan's Emperor Naruhito has officially declared the 2020 Olympic Games open at a crowd-free opening ceremony, despite a controversial build-up that has seen major sponsors withdraw and many Japanese citizens call for a postponement amid fears a gathering of 11,000 athletes could trigger a super-spreader event.

· Hundreds of people gathered outside the Olympic Stadium, hoping to soak up the atmosphere of the first opening ceremony behind closed doors.

· Only a few hundred dignitaries and officials were allowed into the 68,000-capacity venue to watch the event including France's President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. First Lady Jill Biden.

· The director of the opening ceremony, Kentaro Kobayashi, was fired on Thursday after jokes about he made about the Holocaust in a 1998 comedy show emerged online.

· Czechia's Prime Minister Andrej Babis wants more athletes to be vaccinated after six representatives tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival in Tokyo.  Beach volleyball player Marketa Slukova-Nausch's positive test rules her and teammate Barbora Hermannova out of the Olympics.

· Women's kayaking will include a slalom event, known as C1 slalom, for the first time at an Olympic Games after a campaign for gender equality insisted women were given the same opportunity to compete in the event that has been running since 1992 for men.

· Algerian judo star Fethi Nourine has withdrawn from the Olympics after the draw meant a possible second-round match against an Israeli opponent. Nourine told Algerian television: "We worked a lot to reach the Olympics but the Palestinian cause is bigger than all of this."

· Guinea has reversed its decision to withdraw from the Games after concerns over COVID-19 were eased by assurances from Japanese health authorities. The five-person team has been given government approval to compete, the African country's Sports Minister Sanoussy Bantama Sow confirmed.

· Syria's Hend Zaza is the youngest person to compete at the Tokyo Olympics at the tender age of 12. Zaza will begin her Olympic debut against 39-year-old Austrian table tennis player Liu Jia, making her the youngest Olympian since 1968.

· IOC boxing task force chairman Morinari Watanabe hopes the Games will be a "turning point for the sport," after a series of scandals at previous Olympics meant the Amateur International Boxing Association was stripped of the right to run the event.

· Superfan Kyoko Ishikawa will miss her first Summer Games since 1992 – so instead, she's turning her home into a flag-waving, whistle-blowing virtual stadium.

 

Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka lights the flower-shaped Olympic Cauldron that is fueled by clean-burning hydrogen for the first time. /Phil Noble/Reuters

Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka lights the flower-shaped Olympic Cauldron that is fueled by clean-burning hydrogen for the first time. /Phil Noble/Reuters

ARCHERY

Ranking round results

Men Arrows 70m round

Rank 1: Je Deok KIM (South Korea)

Women Arrows 72m round

Rank 1: San AN (South Korea)

 

ROWING

Men's Single Sculls Heats - full results

Heat 1 winner: Kjetil BORCH (Norway)

Heat 2 winner: Stefanos NTOUSKOS (Greece)

Heat 3 winner: Sverri NIELSEN (Denmark)

Heat 4 winner: Trevor JONES (Canada)

Heat 5 winner: Damir Martin (Croatia)

Heat 6 winner: Olivier ZEIDLER (Germany)

 

Women's Single Sculls Heats - full results

Heat 1 winner: Kara KOHLER (U.S.)

Heat 2 winner: Sanita PUSPURE (Ireland)

Heat 3 winner: Hanna PRAKATSEN (Russian Olympic Committee ROC)

Heat 4 winner: Victoria THORNLEY (UK)

Heat 5 winner:  Magdelena LOBNIG (Austria)

Heat 6 winner: Emma TWIGG (New Zealand)

 

Men's Double Sculls Heats - full results

Heat 1 winner: France

Heat 2 winner: Poland

Heat 3 winner: Netherlands

 

Women's Double Sculls Heats - full results

Heat 1 winner: New Zealand

Heat 2 winner: Romania

Heat 3 winner: Netherlands

 

Men's Quadruple Sculls Heats - full results

Heat 1 winner: Netherlands

Heat 2 winner: Poland

 

Women's Quadruple Sculls Heats - full results

Heat 1 winner: Germany

Heat 2 winner: China

 

READ MORE

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MEDAL EVENTS ON SATURDAY

ARCHERY - Mixed Team

CYCLING - Men's road race

FENCING - Women's epee, men's sabre

JUDO - Women's under 48kg, men's -60kg

SHOOTING - Women's 10m air rifle, men's 10m air pistol

TAEKWONDO - Women's -49kg, men's -58kg 

WEIGHTLIFTING - Women's -49kg

 

Cover image: Francois-Xavier Marit/AFP

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