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Former GS of Table Tennis Federation Shamsul Alam Anu passes away
Renowned sports organiser, former general secretary of Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation ( BHF), South Asian Table Tennis Federation and Wari Club Shamsul Alam Anu died in the capital Saturday morning.He was 79.
He breathed his last at his Uttara residence following a cardiac arrest after recovering from Covid-19 two months ago.
Read:Top Table Tennis players in Bangladesh of All Time
Shamsul Alam Anu, a former table tennis player, suffered brain hemorrhage few days ago.
He left behind wife, three sons and a host of relatives and admirers to mourn his death.
Read: How to become a professional table tennis player in Bangladesh
His namaz-e-janaza was held at Baitul Noor Jam-e Mosque at sector- 6 in Uttara after Zohr prayers.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russell MP, Bangladesh Football Federation, Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) and Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association (BSJA) in separate messages expressed shock at the death of Shamsul Alam Anu.
Tokyo 2020: Swimming duo bow out in heats despite personal bests
The Bangladeshi swimming contingent in Tokyo - comprising M Ariful Islam and Junayna Ahmed-- each bowed out Friday during the heats on their first day at the Tokyo Aquatic Center, but not before recording their personal best times - a sign that athletes are improving, and worth persisting with.
Ariful Islam, who had the honour of carrying the Bangladesh national flag in the opening ceremony of the Games, finished 3rd in heat number 4 of the Men 's 50-metres Freestyle. He finished with a time of 24.81 seconds, shaving eleven-hundredths of a second off his previous best of 24.92 seconds, that he swam in the World Swimming Championship in South Korea in 2019. Ariful was placed 51st among 73 competitors for the event.
The 22-year-old Navy swimmer from Nikli of Kishoreganj trained in Paris under an IOC scholarship to prepare himself for the Olympics. Posting the personal best should encourage him to improve further.
The other member of the swim team, 18-year-old Junayna Ahmed, finished 5th in heat number 3 of the Women's 50-metre Freestyle, coming up for air with a time of 29.78 seconds.
It placed her 68th out of 83 competitors, but again it proved a personal best, and in her case by a long way - over one second faster than her previous best.
That too came in the World Swimming Championship in South Korea in 2019, when she swam the 50m Free in 30.96 seconds.
The Bangladeshi-origin London-based swimmer improved her timing by a full 1.18 seconds.
After the day's swimming event, five out of the six Bangladeshi athletes at the Games --archer Ruman Shana, Diya Siddique, shooter Abdullah Hel Baki swimmers Ariful Islam and Junaina Ahmed-- have completed their Tokyo Olympics assignments.
Now only Jahir Raihan remains, when he competes in the men's 400 meter sprint, with the heats on Sunday (Aug 1).
South African sets world swim record; Aussies add 6th gold
South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker was the star of the day, setting the first individual swimming world record at the Tokyo Olympics.
Others shined, too.
Evgeny Rylov completed a backstroke double for Russia, Emma McKeon gave the Aussie women another gold, and China earned a return trip to the top of the medal podium.
The mighty Americans? For the first time in the meet, they spent the entire session Friday watching others win gold.
Schoenmaker, a 24-year-old South African, won the women’s 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 18.95 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:19.11 set by Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona.
It was the third world record at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with the first two coming in women’s relays.
“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” said Schoenmaker, who added to her silver in the 100 breast. ”It couldn’t have been a better race. It still just doesn’t sink in, maybe one day.”
Rylov thoroughly snuffed out America’s dominance in the backstroke, adding the 200 title to his victory in the 100 back.
Rylov won with an Olympic-record time of 1:53.29, while American Ryan Murphy wound up with the silver (1:54.15).
Also read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Murphy was a double-gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he extended an American winning streak that began at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
The U.S. won 12 straight men’s backstroke events over six Olympics, but that streak ended with Rylov’s victory in the 100. He made it 2-for-2 in the longer race, while Murphy settled for bronze and silver in the two events.
Britain’s Luke Greenbank grabbed the 200 bronze in 1:54.72.
McKeon touched first in the 100 freestyle with an Olympic-record time of 51.96, becoming only the second woman to break 52 seconds in the sprint.
Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey earned the silver in 52.27, while another Aussie, Cate Campbell, took the bronze in 52.52. American Abbey Weitzeil was last in the eight-woman field.
The Australians have won four individual women’s events at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, in addition to setting a world record in a 4x100 free relay that included both McKeon and Campbell.
The team from Down Under has six golds overall, tied with the Americans, though the U.S. has the lead in the overall medal count.
The Americans won three medals Friday, also claiming the other two spots on the podium behind Schoenmaker.
But it was the first time the U.S. team went through an entire sessions of finals in Tokyo without winning at least one gold.
Lilly King set a blistering pace early in the 200 breast and held on for a silver in 2:19.92, adding to her bronze in the 100 event. Annie Lazor nabbed the bronze in 2:20.84.
“I don’t come from behind, that’s for sure, so I just wanted to put it out there and see where it goes,” King said. “I thought I did great.”
A day after winning its first two golds at the pool, China picked up another victory when Wang Shun touched first in the men’s 200 individual medley.
Wang edged Britain’s Duncan Scott with a time of 1:55.00. Scott took the silver in 1:55.28, while the bronze went to Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches in 1:56.17.
Also read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Turkmenistan Wins its First Olympic Medal
It was another disappointment for hometown star Daiya Seto, who didn’t even qualify for the final of his first two events. He got through in the 200 IM, but just missed out on a medal with a fourth-place finish -- a mere five-hundredths of a second behind the Swiss bronze medalist.
American Michael Andrew led after the third leg, powering to the top spot on the breaststroke. But he faded badly on the freestyle to wind up in fifth, more than 2 seconds behind the winner.
“I think it hurt worse than it looked, and it looked pretty bad,” Andrew said. “I knew I had to be fast at the 150 and I was praying for some Holy Spirit power to get me home in that (final) 50, but it wasn’t all there.”
But the U.S. has several good chances to claim gold over the last two days of the swimming competition.
Caeleb Dressel has two individual finals remaining, and Katie Ledecky is a big favorite in the 800 free.
Dressel set another Olympic record in the semifinals of the 100 butterfly.
Minutes after Hungary’s Kristof Milak took down the mark in the first semifinal heat, Dressel went even faster with a time of 49.71 in the second heat.
“I feel fine,” Dressel said. “I’m not worried about the schedule. I’ve had it written down for a couple weeks now. I know what’s coming. I know how to pace it correctly. I know how to take care of my body.”
It was the third-fastest time in history and left Milak as the second-fastest qualifier at 50.31.
In the preliminaries, Dressel tied the former Olympic record of 50.39 set by Singapore’s Joseph Schooling to win gold at the 2016 Rio Games.
Dressel will be a big favorite in Saturday morning’s final, though he could get pushed by Milak. The Hungarian already won the 200 fly with a dominating victory.
Dressel picked up the first individual gold medal of his career with a win in the 100 freestyle.
Olympics Archery: Diya Siddique eliminated from recurve singles in shoot-off
Bangladeshi promising teen-age archer Diya Siddique was eliminated from the women's recurve singles after making a brilliant fight in shoot-off stage of Tokyo Olympics '2020 Archery at the Yumenoshima Park Archery field in the Japanese capital Thursday morning.
Seventeen years old talented archer from Nilphamari District Diya lost to her much superior opponent Karyna Dziominskaya of Belarus by 5-6 set points in a nerve shattering ups and downs elimination round match of the women 's recurve singles amid huge appreciations from games lovers.
She made a good start beating her superior rival by 23-22 points in the first set, suffered 25-26 points defeat in the 2nd set, played 25-25 in the 3rd set, conceded 25-27 defeat in the 4th set and earned a 27-25 victory in the 5th set to tie the match 5-5 set points.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Later, in the match fate-deciding shoot off, Diya, miserably was eliminated from the event in the very first attempt scoring 9 points against her opponent's score of 10 points.
After the day's match, three Bangladesh athletes out of six --archer Ruman Shana, shooter Abdullah Hel Baki and Diya Siddique -- completed their Olympics assignments.
Three Bangladesh athletes-- swimmers Ariful Islam and Junaiyna Ahmed and athlete Jahir Raihan now in Tokyo as their events are yet to start.
Two Bangladeshi swimmers will compete in the heats of their respective 50- meter freestyle on Friday (July 30) while the lone athlete will contest in heat of the 400-meter run on Sunday (August 1).
Earlier, Bangladesh famed shooter Abdullah Hel Baki was eliminated from the qualification round of his favourite Men's 10- meter Air Rifles of the Tokyo Olympics Shooting at the Asaka Shooting Range in the Japanese capital last Sunday.
He finished 41st among the 47 competitors of the event making a worse total score of 619.8.
Read:Olympics Archery: Ruman Shana eliminated from recurve singles
Country's celebrated archer M Ruman Shana was eliminated from round of 32 of the men's recurve singles losing to his Canadian rival Duenas Chispin by 4-6 set points in a keenly contested match last Tuesday.
Ruman Shana smartly advanced to the round-32 of the event eliminating Tom Hall of Great Britain by 7-3 set points in the elimination round Tuesday morning.
In last Saturday, Bangladeshi archer Ruman Shana pairing with woman archer Diya Siddique lost to event's gold medalist South Korean pair An San and Kim Je Deok in the round-16 of the mixed team event (mixed doubles) of Olympics.
Bangladeshi pair suffered 30-38 defeat in the first set, conceded 33-35 defeat in the 2nd set and eliminated from the event conceding a narrow 38-39 defeat in the 3rd and final set to Korean pair.
Earlier on last Friday, the two Bangladeshi archers made a total score of 1297 to finish 16th and qualifed for the round of 16 of the mixed team event as the last team.
Read:Olympics Shooting: Baki eliminated from 10-meter Air Rifles
Ruman Shana finished 17th among 64 competitors in the ranking round of recurve individual scoring 662 while Diya Siddique finished 36th among 64 participants in the ranking round making her career best score of 635.
Archer Ruman Shana directly qualified to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after winning the bronze medal in the recurve men 's singles of the Archery World Championship held in June, 2019 while Diya Siddique earned opportunity to complete in the Olympics after getting a wild card.
The Bangladeshi pair Ruman Shana and Diya Siddique earlier played in the mixed team event final of the Archery World Cup Stage 2 held in Lausanne, Switzerland last May.
‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
For decades, they were told to shake it off or toughen up — to set aside the doubt, or the demons, and focus on the task at hand: winning. Dominating. Getting it done.
For years, Simone Biles was one of the very best at that. Suddenly — to some, shockingly — she decided she wasn’t in the right headspace.
By pulling on her white sweatsuit in the middle of Tuesday night’s Olympic gymnastics meet, and by doing it with a gold medal hanging in the balance, Biles might very well have redefined the mental health discussion that’s been coursing through sports for the past year.
Michael Phelps, winner of a record 23 gold medals and now retired, has long been open about his own mental health struggles. Phelps has said he contemplated suicide after the 2012 Olympics while wracked with depression. Now an analyst for NBC’s swimming coverage, he said watching Biles struggle “broke my heart.”
Read:Tokyo Olympics 2020: Turkmenistan Wins its First Olympic Medal
“Mental health over the last 18 months is something people are talking about,” Phelps said. “We’re human beings. Nobody is perfect. So yes, it is OK not to be OK.”
Biles joins some other high-profile athletes in the Olympic space — overwhelmingly females — who have been talking openly about a topic that had been taboo in sports for seemingly forever.
— Tennis player Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, never went to Wimbledon and, after her early exit in Tokyo this week, conceded that the Olympic cauldron was a bit too much to handle.
— American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson made no secret of the issues she faced as she prepared for an Olympic journey that never happened. She said she used marijuana to help mask the pain of her birth mother’s death, to say nothing of the pressure of the 100 meters.
— Dutch cyclist Tom Dumoulin left training camp in January to clear his head, saying he was finding it “very difficult for me to know how to find my way as Tom Dumoulin the cyclist.” He resumed training in May; on Wednesday, he won a silver medal in the men’s individual time trials.
— Liz Cambage, a WNBA player who competes for Australia, pulled out of the Olympics a week before they opened because of anxiety over entering a controlled COVID bubble in Tokyo that would have kept her friends and family away.
“Relying on daily medication to control my anxiety is not the place I want to be right now. Especially walking into competition on the world’s biggest sporting stage,” she wrote on social media.
Biles, though, took things to a new level — one that now makes it thinkable to do what had been almost unthinkable only 24 hours before. She stepped back, assessed the situation and realized it would not be healthy to keep going.
On Wednesday, she pulled out of the all-around competition to focus on her mental well-being.
“I have to do what’s right for me and focus on my mental health, and not jeopardize my health and well-being,” a tearful Biles said after the Americans won the silver medal in team competition. She said she recognized she was not in the right headspace hours before the competition began.
“It was like fighting all those demons,” she said.
The International Olympic Committee, aware of the struggles young athletes face, increased its mental health resources ahead of the Tokyo Games. Psychologists and psychiatrists are onsite in the Olympic village and established a “Mentally Fit Helpline” as a confidential health support service available before, during and for three months after the Games.
Read:Tokyo records record virus cases days after Olympics begin
The 24-hour hotline is a free service that offers in more than 70 languages clinical support, structured short-term counseling, practical support and, if needed, guidance to the appropriate IOC reporting mechanisms in the case of harassment and/or abuse.
The IOC-developed Athlete365 website surveyed more than 4,000 athletes in early 2020, and the results led the IOC to shift its tone from sports performance and results to mental health and uplifting the athlete’s voices.
Content was created for various social media platforms to feature current Olympians championing mental heath causes. And the Olympic State of Mind series on Olympics.com shares compilations of mental health stories and podcasts.
“Are we doing enough? I hope so. I think so,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Wednesday. “But like everyone in the world, we are doing more on this issue.”
Naoko Imoto, a swimmer at the 1996 Atlanta Games, is a consultant on gender equity for the Tokyo Olympic Committee. She said Osaka’s admission in early June about mental-health struggles represented an opening for a discussion largely avoided.
“In Japan, we still don’t talk about mental health,” Imoto said. “I don’t think there’s enough of an understanding on mental health, but I think there are a lot of athletes coming out right now and saying it is common.”
Australian swimmer Jack McLoughlin choked back tears after winning the silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle Sunday, describing how the pressures of training during a pandemic while also pursuing an engineering degree nearly caused him to quit the sport.
“That’s all to my family and friends. They really helped me out, I was really struggling,” McLoughlin said. “I train up to 10, 11 times a week, so to do that when you are not 100% sure you’re actually going to get where you want to be is pretty hard.”
Particularly with the world watching. John Speraw, coach of the U.S. men’s volleyball team and the son of a psychologist, hired a specialist to assist his athletes when he coached at UC Irvine. He was an assistant on two Olympic teams before advancing to be the head coach for the Rio Games. There, he noticed his players were posting on Facebook — during the actual opening ceremony.
“To me, it was the most striking,” he said. “I think we are very conscious of the increased scrutiny and external pressure and expectations that it places on our athletes.”
Thriveworks, a counseling, psychology, and psychiatry services with more than 300 locations, found that one in three elite athletes suffer from anxiety and depression. In an analysis of more than 18,000 data points from print, online, broadcast and social media sources covering track and field, swimming, tennis, gymnastics and soccer, 69% of negative mentions were about female athletes compared to 31% about male athletes.
It showed that when the focus is on an individual athlete, coverage becomes less enthusiastic with a 29% negative tone that exemplifies the public pressure and criticism athletes face, said Kim Plourde, a licensed clinical social worker at Thriveworks who works with elite athletes through the Alliance of Social Workers in Sport.
Read:Naomi Osaka eliminated from Tokyo Olympics tennis tournament
“Female athletes have to manage a different level of expectations from themselves, coaches, other athletes, media, and fans ranging from their physical appearance to their performance,” Plourde said.
Jenny Rissveds of Sweden was the youngest women’s cross-country mountain biking champion when she won gold in Rio at 22. A year later, two deaths in her family triggered depression she still deals with. Rissveds failed to win a second consecutive gold, finishing 14th in Tokyo, but she was elated to be done with competition.
“I’m just so f—-ing happy that it’s over,” she said. “Not just the race. But all these years, to not have to carry that title any more. I have a name and I hope that I can be Jenny now and not the Olympic champion, because that is a heavy burden.
“I hope that I will be left alone now.”
Tokyo records record virus cases days after Olympics begin
Tokyo reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, days after the Olympics began.
The Japanese capital reported 2,848 new COVID-19 cases, exceeding the earlier record of 2,520 cases on Jan. 7.
It brings Tokyo’s total to more than 200,000 since the pandemic began last year.
Tokyo is under its fourth state of emergency, which is to continue through the Olympics until just before the Paralympics start in late August.
Also read: 10 new Covid cases reported at Olympic village
Experts have warned that the more contagious delta variant could cause a surge during the Olympics, which started Friday.
Experts noted that cases among younger, unvaccinated people are rising sharply as Japan’s inoculation drive loses steam due to supply uncertainty. Many serious cases involve those in their 50s. They now dominate Tokyo’s nearly 3,000 hospitalized patients and are gradually filling up available beds. Authorities reportedly plan to ask medical institutions to increase their capacity to about 6,000.
Japan’s vaccination drive began late and slowly, but picked up dramatically in May for several weeks as the supply of imported vaccines stabilized and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government pushed to inoculate more people before the Olympics.
Also read: Tokyo Olympics begin with muted ceremony and empty stadium
The government says 25.5% of Japanese have been fully vaccinated, still way short of the level believed to have any meaningful impact on reducing the risk for the general population.
Still, Japan has kept its cases and deaths much lower than many other countries. Nationwide, it has reported 870,445 cases and 15,129 deaths as of Monday.
Suga’s government has been criticized for what some say is prioritizing the Olympics over the nation’s health. His public support ratings have fallen to around 30% in recent media surveys, and there is little festivity surrounding the Games.
Also read: Pandemic Olympics endured heat, and now a typhoon’s en route
Olympics Archery: Ruman Shana eliminated from recurve singles
Bangladeshi celebrated archer M Ruman Shana was eliminated from his favourite men's recurve singles on the 5th day of Tokyo Olympics Archery at Yumenoshima Park Archery field in the Japanese capital Tuesday noon.
He lost to his Canadian rival Duenas Chispin by 4-6 set points in a keenly contested round-32 match.
Read:Olympics Shooting: Baki eliminated from 10-meter Air Rifles
Ruman Shana made a good start beating his rival 26-25 in the first set, suffered 25-28 defeat in the 2nd set, conceded 27-29 defeat in the 3rd set, earned a 27-26 victory in the 4th set and eliminated from the event conceding a narrow 25-26 defeat in the 5th and match deciding set to his Canadian rival.
Earlier in the morning, Ruman Shana smartly advanced to the round-32 of the event eliminating Tom Hall of Great Britain by 7-3 set points in the elimination round.
He played 28-28 in the first set, earned 27-25 victory in the 2nd set, managed 26-25 victory in the 3rd set, conceded 25-27 defeat in the 4th set and qualified for the round-32 by winning the 5th and final set by 29-27.
In remaining Bangladesh archery event, archer Diya Siddique will play Dziominskaya Karyna of Belarus in the elimination round of the women 's recurve singles on Thursday (July 29).
Read:Olympics Archery: Bangladesh eliminated from mixed team event
In last Saturday, Bangladeshi archer Ruman Shana pairing with woman archer Diya Siddique lost to event's gold medalist South Korean pair An San and Kim Je Deok in the round-16 of the mixed team event (mixed doubles) of Olympics.
Bangladeshi pair suffered 30-38 defeat in the first set, conceded 33-35 defeat in the 2nd set and eliminated from the event conceding a narrow 38-39 defeat in the 3rd and final set to Korean pair.
Earlier on last Friday, the two Bangladeshi archers made a total score of 1297 to finish 16th and qualifed for the round of 16 of the mixed team event as the last team.
Ruman Shana finished 17th among 64 competitors in the ranking round of recurve individual scoring 662 while Diya Siddique finished 36th among 64 participants in the ranking round making her career best score of 635.
Read:Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes
The Bangladeshi pair Ruman Shana and Diya Siddique earlier played in the mixed team event final of the Archery World Cup Stage 2 held in Lausanne, Switzerland last May.
Archer Ruman Shana directly qualified to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after winning the bronze medal in the recurve men 's singles of the Archery World Championship held in June, 2019 while Diya Siddique earned opportunity to complete in the Olympics after getting a wild card.
Naomi Osaka eliminated from Tokyo Olympics tennis tournament
The host country’s superstar is out of the Tokyo Olympics.
Naomi Osaka lost to former French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 in the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament on Tuesday.
The second-ranked Osaka, who was born in Japan and grew up in the United States, struggled with her usually reliable groundstrokes while the left-handed Vondrousova produced a series of drop-shot winners and other crafty shots that drew her opponent out of her comfort zone.
Read: Pandemic Olympics endured heat, and now a typhoon’s en route
“It’s tough for her also playing in Japan and in the Olympics,” the 42nd-ranked Vondrousova said. “It’s so much pressure, I cannot imagine.”
Osaka, who lit the Olympic cauldron in Friday’s opening ceremony, won her opening two matches in straight sets following a two-month mental-health break. But conditions were different Tuesday with the roof closed because it was raining outside.
Shortly after the match was over, organizers said that Osaka had left the venue and would not be talking to the media.
Osaka spoke openly to reporters after her first two matches. That came after she announced in May going into the French Open that she wouldn’t speak to reporters at that tournament, saying those interactions create doubts for her.
Then, after her first-round victory in Paris, she skipped the mandatory news conference.
Osaka was fined $15,000 and — surprisingly — publicly reprimanded by those in charge of Grand Slam tournaments, who said she could be suspended if she kept avoiding the media.
The next day, Osaka withdrew from Roland Garros entirely to take a mental health break, revealing she has dealt with depression.
Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes
She sat out Wimbledon, too. So the Tokyo Games marked her return to competition.
Playing Osaka for the first time, Vondrousova came out with her entire game clicking from the start and quickly ran out to a 4-0 lead in the first set as Osaka hardly had time to gather herself.
Osaka then broke Vondrousova’s serve in the opening game of the second set but almost immediately handed the break back when she double-faulted to make it 2-2.
After Osaka lost her serve again to end the match by hitting a cross-court backhand wide, she shook hands with Vondrousova at the net, walked to her chair, zipped her racket up in her bag and followed Vondrousova off the court.
While both players produced 22 winners, Osaka hit 32 unforced errors to Vondrousova’s 10. But it wasn’t simply an off day for Osaka; it was also an outstanding performance from Vondrousova.
“I also (beat) Simona (Halep) twice, but I think now she (Osaka) is the greatest,” Vondrousova said. “The greatest in the game, and she was also the face of the Olympics so it was tough for her, I think, to play like this.”
Osaka got a decent 64% of her first serves in play but won only 49% of the points off her first serve.
During one point midway through the second set, Vondrousova hit an underspin, scooped forehand approach shot that landed right on the line — prompting Osaka to stare at the line for a few seconds in apparent disbelief.
Read:Olympics Shooting: Baki eliminated from 10-meter Air Rifles
Osaka had break points to take a 4-3 lead in the second but Vondrousova hit consecutive drop-shot winners to get back in the game and then held.
About 10 minutes later, the match was over.
“I just really believed the second I stepped on the court,” Vondrousova said. “I think that that’s the main thing.”
Pandemic Olympics endured heat, and now a typhoon’s en route
First, the sun. Now: the wind and the rain.
The Tokyo Olympics, delayed by the pandemic and opened under oppressive heat, are due for another hit of nature’s power: a typhoon arriving Tuesday morning that is forecast to disrupt at least some parts of the Games.
“Feels like we’re trying to prepare for bloody everything,” said New Zealand rugby sevens player Andrew Knewstubb.
Don’t worry, Japanese hosts say: In U.S. terms, the incoming weather is just a mid-grade tropical storm. And the surfers at Tsurigasaki beach say Tropical Storm Nepartak could actually improve the competition so long as it doesn’t hit the beach directly.
But archery, rowing and sailing have already adjusted their Tuesday schedules. Tokyo Games spokesman Masa Takaya said there were no other changes expected.
“It is a tropical storm of three grade out of five, so you shouldn’t be too much worried about that, but it is a typhoon in Japan interpretation,” Takaya said. “This is the weakest category, but this is still a typhoon so we should not be too optimistic about the impact of the course.”
On the beach about 90 miles east of Tokyo, the competitors want the change in weather so long as the rain and wind don’t make total landfall. The surfing competition was delayed Monday because of low tide. But if the storm hits as expected, it could deliver waves twice as high as expected.
“As a homeowner I say, ‘Oh no, stay away!’” said Kurt Korte, the official Olympic surfing forecaster. “But as a surfer, ‘OK, you can form if you stay out there,’ Everybody can agree a storm out in the distance is the best.”
Also read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes
The Japan Meteorological Agency said Nepartak was headed northwest over the Pacific Ocean east of Japan on Monday with landfall expected Tuesday afternoon. The storm could bring strong winds, up to 5.9 inches (150 millimeters) of rainfall and high waves as it cuts across Japan’s northeastern region.
In advance, organizers made the first major alterations to the Olympic archery schedule because of weather. There was an hour delay at the Beijing Games in 2008. Here, the Tuesday afternoon sessions have been postponed until Wednesday and Thursday.
“We’ve heard that storm could be anything from rain or 80-mph wind,” said American archer Jack Williams.
Added Brady Ellison, his teammate: “Unless there’s lightning, right here, we’ll shoot it. We’ll deal with whatever it’s going to be. Rain just starts to suck in general.”
Beach volleyball plays in everything but lightning. Both the women’s final at the Beijing Games and men’s final at the Rio Games were held in heavy rain.
At Ariake Tennis Park, center court has a retractable roof that can be closed for inclement weather, but play on outer courts would have to be suspended.
Also read: Tokyo Olympics begin with muted ceremony and empty stadium
“They can move every match, I think, if there is really going to be a typhoon with rain,” said Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 player in the world. “We never know. I guess they will maybe try to move six matches, but it depends how long the matches will be."
Any sort of rain — typhoon, tropical storm, or even light sprinkling — will be a wild swing from the first three days of the Games.
Svetlana Gomboeva collapsed from heatstroke on the first day of archery but recovered to win a silver medal. Top-seeded Novak Djokovic and Medvedev, who who complained his first round match was “some of the worst” heat he’d ever played in, successfully leaned on the International Tennis Federation to give Olympics players extra time during breaks to offset the high temperatures.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova had resorted to shoving bags of ice up her skirt, and fiddled with a tube blowing cold air next to her seat. At skateboarding, the intense sun turned the park into a furnace, radiating off the light concrete with such blinding effect that skaters complained the heat was softening the rubber joints on their wheel axles and making the boards harder to control.
July and August in Japan are notoriously hot and humid. Japan has faced criticism for not accurately describing the severity and instead, during the bidding process, calling it mild and ideal.
Daytime highs regularly hit 95 degrees (35 Celsius) but have exceeded 104 degrees (40 Celsius) in some places in recent years. The Environment Ministry began issuing heatstroke alerts in July 2020 for the Tokyo areas and in April for the entire nation.
Japan reported 112 deaths from June to September last year, as well as 64,869 people taken to hospitals by ambulance for heat-related issues. Tokyo logged the largest number of heat stroke sufferers at 5,836 during the three-month period.
Australian canoeist Jessica Fox, the gold medal favorite in the kayak slalom, said the wild weather swings have been a disruption to the Olympic event. “It is like a bath,” she said. “It is like paddling in bathwater.”
And the impending typhoon disruption?
“I am a bit concerned about that,” Fox said. “I saw the surfers and they were all excited about the weather, which isn’t ideal for us.”
If Tuesday’s bronze medal softball game is postponed, the Canada team worries it could get stuck in Japan because members had flights the following day.
“We very much hope that the game goes (Tuesday) so that we can get on a plane and go home,” coach Mark Smith said. “As you probably know, with the pandemic, that flights are very hard to come by.”
The weather extremes are just another obstacle Olympic organizers have faced during these beleaguered Games, already delayed a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Asked on Monday if Tokyo officials feel they can’t catch a break, Takaya said they’ve had to be flexible.
“I mean, you know, we’re supposed to react to any situation, that’s one of our jobs,” he said. “This is absolutely a regular exercise we have to face.”
Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes
The Summer Olympic Games are major international sporting event in which competitors from all over the world participate in a variety of sports. The Olympic Games are held every four years and are regarded as the most important sporting event. The coronavirus epidemic prevented the 2020 Summer Olympics from taking place as planned. One year later, the Tokyo Olympics 2020 has finally started on July 23, 2021, and the tournament will end on August 8. This year's event has a total of six Bangladeshi participants. Let's take a look at the Bangladeshi athletes who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
List of Bangladeshi Athletes Qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020
Six Bangladeshi athletes are competing in archery, athletics, shooting, and swimming, at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Archery
Participant: Mohammad Ruman Shana, 26
Event: Men's individual & Mixed Team
Ruman Shana has won several international competitions, including gold in the 2014 First Asian Grand Prix, bronze in the 2019 World Archery Championships, and gold in the Asia Cup ranking tournament. He and Diya Siddique won silver in the recurve mixed team event at the Archery World Cup on May 23, 2021. Archery is the only sport in which Bangladesh has the possibility of winning a medal in the Olympics.
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Participant: Diya Siddique, 17
Event: Women's individual& Mixed Team
Born on 19 February 2004, Diya Siddique is one of the youngest participants in this year's event. She earned a medal in the 2021 Archery World Cup at a young age. At the Archery World Cup, Diya and Ruman Shana took silver in the recurve mixed team event.
Read Olympics Archery: Bangladesh eliminated from mixed team event
Athletics
Participant: Mohammad Jahir Rayhan, 20
Event: Men's 400 m
Jahir set a personal best of 46.86 seconds in the 400m race at the 42nd National Championships in 2019, while his best time in international competition is 47.34 seconds. In 2017, Mohammad Jahir reached the Asian Youth Athletics Championship semi-finals in Thailand.
Read Olympics Archery: Bangladesh qualify for mixed doubles
Shooting
Participant: Abdullah Hel Baki, 31
Event: Men's 10 m air rifle
Abdullah Hel Baki is a Bangladeshi shooter with a lot of international experience. Abdullah Baki was a silver medalist in the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, as well as a bronze medalist in the 2010 Games.
Read Olympics Shooting: Baki eliminated from 10-meter Air Rifles
Swimming
Participant: Mohammed Ariful Islam, 22
Event: Men's 50 m freestyle
22-year-old Navy swimmer Mohammed Ariful Islam is another Bangladeshi athlete competing in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Ariful has been participating in a French solidarity scholarship program since 2018. He has been selected to participate in the 50m freestyle event.
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Participant: Junayna Ahmed, 18
Event: Women's 50 m freestyle
18-year-old Junayna Ahmed has achieved considerable success on the international stage. She earned bronze medals in the women's 400-meter individual medley, 800-meter freestyle, and 200-meter butterfly events at the 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal.
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Bottom Line
Despite the fact that Bangladeshi athletes have competed in the Summer Olympics on a regular basis since independence, they have yet to win a single medal. There is a slim chance of winning a medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 for Bangladeshi participants. The main goal of the Bangladeshi athletes will be to advance to the next round. We must try to improve sports in Bangladesh as a whole in order to win a medal in a major event like the Olympics.
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