OLYMPICS
A third athlete at the Olympic Village in Tokyo has tested positive for COVID-19, with the Czech Republic team reporting the case Monday of a beach volleyball player who could miss his first game.
Czech beach volleyball player Ondrej Perusic could miss his opening game on Monday after a PCR test confirmed his infection. Perusic and his playing partner are due to the begin their Olympic program against a team from Latvia.
Czech team leader Martin Doktor said in a statement they would ask to postpone the game until the infected player is cleared to play.
Perusic, who said he has been vaccinated, is the second member of the Czech delegation to test positive in Tokyo after a team official’s case was reported Saturday.
He is the third athlete who was staying at the village to test positive. Two South African men’s soccer players had their COVID-19 cases announced Sunday.
The South African players and a team video analyst who tested positive one day earlier were moved to the “isolation facility” managed by the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee.
Their 21 close contacts around the South Africa team now face extra scrutiny before their first game Thursday against Japan in Tokyo. The monitoring regime includes daily testing, traveling in a dedicated vehicle, training separately from teammates not affected and being confined to their rooms for meals.
Earlier Monday, before the Czech case was reported, Tokyo Olympic organizers confirmed three new COVID-19 cases, including a media worker arriving in Tokyo and a Games staffer or official in the Chiba prefecture.
Both people, who were not identified, went into a 14-day quarantine, organizers said.
• Katie Lou Samuelson is out of 3-on-3 basketball at the Olympics after contracting COVID-19 while training in Las Vegas.
Samuelson, who plays for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, flew home to get vaccinated during her European season so that she would be ready to help the U.S. qualify for the Olympics in May.
She’ll be replaced on the roster by Jackie Young, who played for the U.S. in a 3-on-3 training camp in 2020 and also competed in the event in the 2019 World Beach Games. Young joins Stefanie Dolson, Allisha Gray and her Las Vegas Aces teammate Kelsey Plum.
• Spain power forward Juancho Hernangomez, who was ruled out of the Tokyo Games earlier this month because of a left shoulder injury, has made the team’s Olympic roster after all.
The Spanish federation had said Hernangomez, who plays in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves, would need significant time to recover from a dislocated left shoulder. He got hurt in an exhibition game against France on July 8.
But when Spain revealed its Olympic roster, he made the cut – a clear sign the national team believes he will be able to play in Tokyo.
• Keigo Oyamada, a Japanese composer working on the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, resigned after coming under fire for bullying classmates during his childhood.
Reports of his past abuse of classmates, including those with disabilities, surfaced online recently and sparked a backlash on social media plus demands for his resignation.
Games organizers said Sunday that he would stay on because he had shown remorse. Hours after Oyamada submitted his resignation, they reversed their position and called his actions “absolutely unacceptable”, saying their earlier decision to let him stay on in light of his apology, and the short time left before the opening ceremony, was “wrong.”
• Toyota won’t be airing any Olympic-themed advertisements on Japanese television during the Tokyo Games despite being one of the IOC’s top corporate sponsors.
The extraordinary decision by the country’s top automaker underlines how polarizing the Games have become in Japan as COVID-19 infections rise ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony.
“There are many issues with these Games that are proving difficult to be understood,” Toyota Chief Communications Officer Jun Nagata told reporters.
Chief Executive Akio Toyoda, the company founder’s grandson, will be skipping the opening ceremony. That’s despite about 200 athletes taking part in the Olympics and Paralympics who are affiliated with Toyota, including swimmer Takeshi Kawamoto and softball player Miu Goto.
Nagata said the company will continue to support its athletes.
BASEBALL
WOODEN BAT LEAGUE: Alex Cook and Nolan Hobbs each delivered walk-off singles to help South Portland (14-3) sweep visiting Biddeford, 2-1 and 3-2, in a doubleheader.
In game one, Nick Swain started the winning rally with a walk, advanced to second after a hit batter, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Cook’s two-out hit into center field.
In game two, Andrew Heffernan singled with one out, moved to second on a single by Richard Gilboy, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Hobbs’ two-out hit into center field.
SOCCER
EURO 2020: The English Football Association has commissioned an independent review to investigate the “disgraceful scenes” that marred the national team’s shootout loss to Italy in the European Championship final at Wembley.
The FA announced it had informed the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) of the review and vowed to identify those responsible for the trouble that occurred before and during the match.
“We are determined to fully understand what happened outside and then inside Wembley Stadium at the UEFA Euro 2020 final on Sunday 11 July,” the FA said in a statement. “We informed DCMS at the weekend that an independent review led by Baroness Casey of Blackstock has been commissioned to report on the facts and circumstances involved.
“It will speak to all parties concerned and include external experts. A key emphasis of the findings will be to ensure that lessons are learned and such disgraceful scenes are never able to be repeated.”
Trouble flared before the final as dozens of fans without tickets forced their way into the stadium, while there were ugly scenes in the stands during the game too.
England lost 3-2 on penalties after extra time had failed to separate the sides, with Leonardo Bonucci having canceled out Luke Shaw’s early opener for the home team.
England trio Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who had missed from the spot, were later racially abused on social media platforms.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Mercedes, Formula One and its governing body the FIA issued a joint statement condemning the online racist abuse aimed at Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton was targeted following the Mercedes driver’s crash with rival Max Verstappen on the opening lap of Sunday’s British Grand Prix that sent the championship leader hurtling out of the race.
Hamilton was handed a 10-second penalty following the crash but the seven-time world champion delivered a superb comeback drive to record his eighth win on home soil.
Verstappen was taken to hospital after the 190mph shunt, which registered at 51G, before being released later “without any major injuries”, his Red Bull team said.
Red Bull also issued a statement criticizing the attacks on Hamilton.
“While we may be fierce rivals on-track, we are all united against racism,” the team said. “We condemn racist abuse of any kind towards our teams, our competitors and our fans.
“As a team we are disgusted and saddened to witness the racist abuse Lewis endured yesterday on social media after the collision with Max. There is never any excuse for it. There is certainly no place for it in our sport and those responsible should be held accountable.”
It is understood that F1 is compiling a dossier of the offensive posts and will raise them directly with the platforms and call on them to take action.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it tried to remove harmful content as quickly as possible and encouraged people to use the tools it offers to block abuse.
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