Japan wins first softball game as ‘Hope’ Games begin

FUKUSHIMA / TOKYO, July 21 (Reuters) – Japan’s women’s softball team gave the hosts a winning start at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Wednesday, kicking off a postponed Games in the event of a pandemic which the World Organization says. health, may be “a celebration of hope” even as COVID-19 cases rise.

The Olympics and Japanese officials have moved forward with the sporting spectacle despite opposition in the country to host more than 11,000 athletes, staff and media – dozens of whom have already tested positive for COVID-19 .

Spectators were banned and restrictions were imposed in and around Tokyo in an attempt to minimize health risks to residents and visitors.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Games should move forward to show the world what can be achieved with the right plan and the right measures.

“May the rays of hope of this land light up a new dawn for a healthy, safer and more just world,” he said, holding up an Olympic Games torch as he addressed the members of the Committee. international Olympic in the Japanese capital. “It is my sincere hope that the Tokyo Games are successful.”

However, Tedros warned the world was in the early stages of another wave of infections and criticized vaccine gaps between countries.

Japan, with around 34% of the population having received at least one dose of the vaccine, feared the Olympics would become a big-ticket event.

In a recent Asahi newspaper poll, 68% of those polled expressed doubts about the ability of Olympic organizers to control coronavirus infections, with 55% saying they were opposed to continuing the Games.

OPENING CEREMONY

The official opening ceremony for the Games takes place on Friday and is expected to be a scaled-down and sobering performance, according to Marco Balich, senior advisor to the Tokyo Ceremonies Executive Producer.

As with the Opening Ceremony, the gold medal-contending women’s softball match between Japan and Australia was played without spectators amid humming cicadas and polite applause from a few hundred employees. from Fukushima Stadium. The region was devastated by the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, triggered by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Players standing along the benches in the scorching sun – 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in the middle of the game – yelled at batters all morning, making the game feel like Little League.

The match ended after five innings due to a leniency rule as a trio of Japanese two-run homers broke through the fence.

Two more softball games and the first six women’s soccer games are scheduled for later Wednesday.

Tokyo 2020 organizers on Wednesday revealed seven more COVID-19 infections among attendees, bringing the total to 75. Public broadcaster NHK said a Chilean taekwondo competitor plans to withdraw from the Olympics after testing positive .

Cases are on the rise in Tokyo, and Japanese media reported that government adviser Shigeru Omi said daily COVID-19 infections in Tokyo could reach a record 3,000 in the first week of August, that is, more than double their recent peak.

This would lead to an extremely high risk of straining the already stretched medical system.

Highlighting the reduced Games due to the pandemic, government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga would only meet around 15 world leaders on the sidelines of the Olympics, up from 120 previously.

Tokyo had hoped to replicate some of its successes by hosting the 1964 Games, which helped launch Japan onto the international stage.

Olympic officials are expected to confirm preferred bidder Brisbane as host of the 2032 Summer Games later Wednesday, the third time Australia has hosted the sporting extravagance.

Reporting by Paresh Dave and Karolos Grohmann; Additional reporting and writing by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Lincoln Feast.

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