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Tag: Tokyo Olympics

  • We’re Going To Tokyo Olympics To Win, D’Tigers Coach boasts

    We’re Going To Tokyo Olympics To Win, D’Tigers Coach boasts

    D’Tigers, Mike Brown, says they are not going to the Tokyo Olympics just for the experience but to win.

    The Nigerian men’s side are drawn in Group B alongside heavyweights Australia, Germany and Italy, at this summer’s games.

    Despite being drawn in a tough group, Brown is confident his players will do well in Tokyo.

    “We are not going there just for the experience. The experience will be nice and we are excited about going there and experiencing everything Tokyo has to offer for us as well as the Olympics. But we want to go and win. We have the mindset of we’re going to Tokyo to win,” Brown said on D’Tigers’ Twitter handle.

    “Whatever that means after the end of the day we will find out but we are not going to settle or be okay with anything else along the way.

    “We are looking forward to showing not just the people of Nigeria but the people on the continent of Africa and the people around the world that there’s a lot of Nigerian talent out there.”

  • Nadal withdraws from Wimbledon tournament, Tokyo Olympics

    Nadal withdraws from Wimbledon tournament, Tokyo Olympics

    Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal confirmed on Thursday that he has withdrawn from the upcoming Wimbledon tournament and the Tokyo Olympics.

    The 35-year-old announced the decision on social media, explaining that he had decided not to participate at these two competitions.

    “It’s never an easy decision to take but after listening to my body and discussing it with my team I understand that it is the right decision,” said the player, who missed London 2012 with tendonitis in his knee.

    “The goal is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy. That is to compete at the highest level and keep fighting for those professional and personal goals at the maximum level of competition,” he added.

    Nadal was knocked out of the French Open in the semi-finals by eventual winner Novak Djokovic.

    He said the lack of rest periods between Roland Garros and Wimbledon was one reason for not competing at the All-England Club.

    “The fact that there has only been two weeks between RG and Wimbledon didn’t make it easier on my body to recuperate after the always demanding clay court season.”

    “These have been two months of great effort and the decision I take is focused looking at the mid- and long term,” he explained.

    Nadal has triumphed twice in Wimbledon (2008 and 2010) and won the gold medal in the singles event in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and a gold in doubles at Rio in 2016.

    “The Olympic Games always meant a lot and they are always a priority as a sports person. I found the spirit that every sports person in the world wants to live.

    “I personally had the chance to live three of them and had the honour to be the flagbearer for my country,” his social media statement indicated.

  • Team Nigeria on course to qualify for Tokyo Olympics relay races

    Team Nigeria on course to qualify for Tokyo Olympics relay races

    Olamide George, the Acting President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), has assured that Team Nigeria were on course in seeking qualification for the relay races of the Tokyo Olympics.

    George, who is in Texas in the U.S. with the team, said on Friday that the team would qualify for not just the mixed relay event.

    “We will also qualify for the men’s and women’s 4x100m and 4x400m events,” he said.

    George expressed his delight with the team following their performance at the PVAMU meet in Texas.

    “We are happy. But I also believe we can do much better in our next race.

    “We now know what we need to do to secure one of the four available slots on offer,” he said.

    Nigeria’s 4x400m mixed relay team got off to a good start at the PVAMU meet on Wednesday, running a new three minutes 18.53 seconds Nigerian record to win the event.

    The win has now put Team Nigeria within five places of sealing a spot in the event at the Tokyo Olympics.

    The quartet of Imaobong Nse, Patience Okon-George, Nathaniel Samson and Sikiru Adeyemi made history as the first quartet to dorn the country’s colours in the event.

    The team, according to the latest World Athletics ranking, are now 21st.

    They are behind Germany, who presently occupy the 16th qualifying spot, Kenya, France, Czech Republic and Colombia respectively.

    But Team Nigeria will need to better the time ran by Germany (3:16.85) to become one of the 16 finalists for the event in Tokyo.

  • 2 Kenyan boxers granted Tokyo Olympics slots

    2 Kenyan boxers granted Tokyo Olympics slots

    Kenyan boxers Elizabeth Akinyi and Elly Ochola are the latest entrants to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games, the IOC Boxing Task Force announced on Friday.

    The Boxing Task Force (BTF) confirmed to National Olympics Committee-Kenya (NOCK) that the two boxers were given a quota place to the Games through the BTF Rankings.

    Akinyi and Ochola, welterweight and heavyweight boxers respectively, were both bronze medalists at the Africa qualifiers which were held in Dakar, Senegal in February 2020.

    The two boxers now joined their fellow Kenyans boxers Nick Okoth who will compete in men’s featherweight and Christine Ongare who will compete in flyweight.

    Okoth and Ongare earned their automatic qualification status during the African Qualifiers last year.

    Kenya’s Chef-de-Mission to Tokyo Olympics Waithaka Kioni confirmed the quotas.

    “We congratulate the two boxers for earning a place in the team for Tokyo.

    “We acknowledge that the boxers have been training very diligently since the resumption of sports, and they deserve these two slots that they have been allocated by IOC,” Kioni said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

    The BTF restructured the remaining qualification path, with the 53 quota places originally assigned to the Final World Qualifier to be distributed equally across all regions.

    The regions are Africa, Asia, Oceania, Americas and Europe.

    Sixteen other boxers are set to compete in Kinshasa, Congo for a Zone 3 boxing championship that will be played from Saturday to March 26.

  • Japan doubles down on Tokyo Olympics, denies report of cancellation

    Japan doubles down on Tokyo Olympics, denies report of cancellation

    Japan doubled down on its commitment to host the Tokyo Olympics this year and flatly denied reports on Friday of a cancellation, in a move that is unlikely to temper public fears of holding the event during a global pandemic.

    Though much of Japan is under a state of emergency due to a third wave of COVID-19 infections, Tokyo organisers have consistently vowed to press ahead with the Games scheduled to open on July 23 after having been postponed in March last year.

    A government spokesman said there was “no truth” to a report in The Times that Japan was now focused on rescheduling the event to 2032.

    “We will clearly deny the report,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Manabu Sakai said in a press conference on Friday.

    The Tokyo 2020 organising committee also denied the report, saying its partners including the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee were “fully focused” on hosting the games as scheduled.

    In early international reactions, the Australian and U.S. Olympic Committees said they were preparing for the Games as planned.

    “Unfortunately, I need to address unfounded rumours that the Tokyo Olympic Games will be cancelled, rumours that only create more anxiety for athletes,” Matt Carroll, the chief executive of the Australian committee, told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

    “The Tokyo Games are on. The flame will be lit on July 23, 2021.”

    The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) is run by the IOC’s pointman for the Tokyo Games John Coates.

    Olympic committees from the U.S. and Canada wrote on Twitter they had not received any information suggesting the Games would not happen as planned.

    Japan has been hit less severely by the pandemic than many other advanced economies, but a recent surge in cases has forced it to close its borders to non-resident foreigners and declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and major cities.

    About 80 per cent of people in Japan do not want the Games to be held this summer, recent opinion polls show, over fears the influx of athletes will spread the virus further.

    In an interview ahead of Friday’s report, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said he was cautiously hopeful that successful rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines could help lead to the safe staging of the world’s largest sporting event.

    The Olympic Games represents a major milestone for Japan and its premier, Yoshihide Suga, who has said the event would bring “hope and courage” to the world. Suga reiterated on Friday that it would go ahead as planned.

    International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach reaffirmed his commitment to holding the Games this year in an interview with Kyodo News on Thursday.

    “We have at this moment, no reason whatsoever to believe that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on the 23rd of July in the Olympic stadium in Tokyo,” Bach told Kyodo.

  • Tokyo Olympics: Team Nigeria to compete in 11 sports, says Minister

    Tokyo Olympics: Team Nigeria to compete in 11 sports, says Minister

    Team Nigeria will compete in just 11 sports with comparative advantage at the Tokyo Olympics, Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare has said.

    The minister made this known in a statement issued by his Special Adviser (Media), John Joshua-Akanji on Wednesday in Abuja.

    Dare declared that the days of jamboree at the Olympics are over, as Nigeria would only leverage on sports with comparative advantage and prospects of a podium finish.

    He said preparing and leveraging on such short will be the focus of the ministry.

    “The Olympics is less than six months away and we have started camping our athletes to get them to full fitness ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

    “We have four camps in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Akure and Lagos. From next year we will commence a more robust camping with some athletes going abroad to train with their foreign- based counterparts, he added.

    Dare said the early camping which are in stages will will be intensified with all the COVID-19 protocols put in place.

    “The first camping exercise was in Pankshin, Plateau State, while the second phase camping ended on Dec. 24, 2020. Lagos , Bayelsa, Port Harcourt and Abuja were the locations for the second phase.

    “We started the Pre-Olympics camping early to ensure that the Athletes that will be representing the country in the Tokyo Olympics put up podium performances,” he added.

    The minister emphasised that Team Nigeria will be going to the Olympics with just 11 sports, unlike in the past when all the sports that qualified went and returned empty handed.

    “We need to compete with other nations to win and not to complete the numbers. We have decided to focus on 11 sports where we have comparative advantage,” he added.

    The 2020 Tokyo Olympics which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic will now hold in the summer of 2021.

  • Tokyo Olympics: Age limit could be raised for football tournament

    Tokyo Olympics: Age limit could be raised for football tournament

    The age limit for the Tokyo Olympics men’s football tournament could be raised, world football ruling body FIFA said on Friday.

    It said this was to ensure that players who were eligible in 2020 will not miss out following the postponement of the Games until the following year.

    Olympic football is usually restricted to under-23 teams for the men’s tournament, with three overage players allowed per team.

    “However, a working group set up by FIFA recommended on Friday that the competition should remain open to players born on or after Jan. 1, 1997, as originally planned,’’ FIFA said in a statement.

    This will effectively raise the age limit by one year, as requested by both South Korea and Australia.

    There is no age limit for the women’s tournament.

    The working group also recommended the postponement of all international matches due to be played in June.

    This is a formality as Euro 2020, the Copa America and the month’s World Cup qualifiers have already been called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The recommendations still have to be approved by the FIFA Bureau, a reduced version of its decision-making Council.

    “FIFA also reiterates that health must always be the first priority and the main criteria in any decision-making process, especially in these challenging times,” the football ruling body said.

    The group proposed discussions with continental confederations to finalise a revised schedule for 2022 World Cup qualifiers, after matches this month and in June were postponed.

    It also recommended the postponement of the under-20 women’s World Cup, due to be co-hosted by Panama and Costa Rica in August and September.

    The group further advised on the postponement of the under-17 women’s World Cup in India, originally scheduled for November.

    A decision on the Futsal World Cup in Lithuania in September should be made by the end of this month, it said.