TOKYO — The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The very first match of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament has been canceled because a Czech player tested positive for COVID-19.
Markéta Sluková tested positive earlier this week, knocking her and partner Barbora Hermannova out of the Tokyo Games.
The Czechs were supposed to be playing a team from the host country that would have been making its Olympic debut. Instead, the Japanese pair of Megumi Murakami and Miki Ishii earned the victory by default.
Sluková is one of at least three members of the Czech team who have tested positive since their arrival in Japan, including men’s beach volleyball player Ondřej Perušič.
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The team has said it’s investigating if the outbreak of COVID-19 is linked to its charter flight to Tokyo.
German cyclist Simon Geschke has been ruled out of the men’s road race after testing positive for the coronavirus.
The German team says Geschke initially tested positive Friday and his result was confirmed by another test later in the day.
Germany says fellow riders Nikias Arndt and Maximilian Schachmann are cleared to race Saturday. The fourth rider on the team, Emanuel Buchmann, was Geschke’s roommate and was waiting overnight on the result of another PCR test for the virus. Team staff tested negative.
Geschke was a stage winner on the Tour de France in 2015.
The German road race team is living in a hotel and not in the Olympic Village.
Geschke says he followed the hygiene rules at the Olympics. He adds that “I feel fine physically but emotionally it’s a really terrible day for me.”