A top-ranked sumo wrestler has examined optimistic for the coronavirus.
The Japan Sumo Association on Tuesday stated the wrestler, who goes by the identify of Hakuho, underwent a polymerase chain response after detecting issues along with his sense of scent.
The Mongolian-born wrestler had been making ready for a match that begins this weekend. There was no speedy report on his actual situation.
He is the primary among the many top-ranked sumo wrestlers in Japan to check optimistic for COVID-19.
The historic win got here simply 16 years after Hakuho’s debut, versus the 23 years it took for the earlier report holder. (Source: File)
Hakuho is a “yokozuna,” a grand champion in sumo wrestling, and among the best the standard Japanese sport has ever seen. In an interview final yr he identified that his late father was a silver medalist in wrestling for Mongolia within the 1968 Olympics. He additionally competed within the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Japan, with a inhabitants of 125 million, has managed the coronavirus pandemic comparatively nicely, with about 3,500 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
But new instances have been surging over the past a number of weeks and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has been requested to impose a “state of emergency” for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures.
Tag: Tokyo Olympics
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Top-ranked sumo wrestler Hakuho exams optimistic for COVID-19
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Tokyo Olympics might find yourself with India’s best-ever medal haul, feels Abhinav Bindra
Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Abhinav Bindra.
India’s solely particular person Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra is hopeful of the nation recording its best-ever medal haul within the upcoming version of the mega-event in Tokyo, saying every of the athlete may be counted as a “realistic” prospect.
India’s greatest exhibiting on the Games stays the six medals it received in London in 2012.“Tokyo Olympics could end up with our best ever medal haul even though the times are challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bindra stated on Monday throughout a webinar organised by Merchants’ Chambers of Commerce & Industry.
“Sport is not scripted but I do hope that we come back with our best medal haul and that means we will come back with 5-6 medals and better the London haul, which, if I am not wrong, remains our best.”
Bindra, who created historical past by successful the nation’s first and solely particular person Olympic gold medal on the 2008 Beijing Games, is optimistic a couple of sturdy efficiency by the Indian capturing contingent within the Japanese capital.
“I believe every certainly one of them has the power to do their greatest, they’ve proved themselves within the final two-three years.
“There are definite medal hopes not just in shooting but across other disciplines as well. We have many people who can be considered as realistic medal hopes going into Tokyo. But a lot also depends on that particular day,” he stated.The former world champion in 10m air rifle, who turned entrepreneur after the Rio Olympics in 2016, stated like in sports activities, adaptability and acceptance additionally come helpful in enterprise.
“Whenever I’m in a disaster state of affairs, every time I discover a problem I do look again at my sporting profession and ask myself how do I face it.
“As an athlete, you have to be very adaptable to changing situations, these are very useful in business as well,” he stated whereas talking on his transition from a sportsman to an entrepreneur.
“The other thing that is very important is acceptance. Sometimes we have to learn how to accept and move on as soon. As you do that your mind opens, it opens up to look at solutions rather than whining. The mind is then very positive. But it is easier said than done.”
He additionally stated the capturing scene has modified so much from the time when he had began 22 years in the past. “Shooting is now dominated by youngsters but when I was growing up, I was competing with older and experienced people who were double or triple our age. I don’t think it was a challenge but it was an interesting dynamic,” he stated, responding to a query.
Speaking concerning the time after his Beijing heroics, when he contemplated giving up capturing, Bindra stated meditation helped him regain his give attention to the game.
“Post Beijing I wished to surrender. I went for a meditation retreat, a 10-day Vipasana the place I’m purported to meditate for 10 hours a day. That’s once I realised that I used to be nonetheless in love with the method.
“Actually it was boring and mundane that again brought me back to the sport,” the previous shooter, who now runs the Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance Centre (ABTP) stated. -
Abhinav Bindra hopeful of India recording best-ever medal haul in Tokyo Olympics
India’s solely particular person Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra is hopeful of the nation recording its best-ever medal haul within the upcoming version of the mega-event in Tokyo, saying every of the athlete will be counted as a “realistic” prospect.
India’s greatest displaying on the Games stays the six medals it received in London in 2012.
“Tokyo Olympics could end up with our best ever medal haul even though the times are challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bindra stated on Monday throughout a webinar organised by Merchants’ Chambers of Commerce & Industry.
“Sport is not scripted but I do hope that we come back with our best medal haul and that means we will come back with 5-6 medals and better the London haul, which, if I am not wrong, remains our best.”
Bindra, who created historical past by profitable the nation’s first and solely particular person Olympic gold medal on the 2008 Beijing Games, is optimistic a couple of robust efficiency by the Indian taking pictures contingent within the Japanese capital.
“I believe every considered one of them has the power to do their greatest, they’ve proved themselves within the final two-three years.
“There are definite medal hopes not just in shooting but across other disciplines as well. We have many people who can be considered as realistic medal hopes going into Tokyo. But a lot also depends on that particular day,” he stated.
The former world champion in 10m air rifle, who turned entrepreneur after the Rio Olympics in 2016, stated like in sports activities, adaptability and acceptance additionally come helpful in enterprise.
“Whenever I’m in a disaster state of affairs, at any time when I discover a problem I do look again at my sporting profession and ask myself how do I face it.
“As an athlete you have to be very adaptable to changing situations, these are very useful in business as well,” he stated whereas talking on his transition from a sportsman to an entrepreneur.
“The other thing that is very important is acceptance. Sometimes we have to learn how to accept and move on as soon. As you do that your mind opens, it opens up to look at solutions rather than whining. The mind is then very positive. But it is easier said than done.”
He additionally stated the taking pictures scene has modified so much from the time when he had began 22 years in the past.
“Shooting is now dominated by youngsters but when I was growing up, I was competing with older and experienced people who were double or triple our age. I don’t think it was a challenge but it was an interesting dynamic,” he stated, responding to a query.
Speaking concerning the time after his Beijing heroics, when he contemplated giving up taking pictures, Bindra stated meditation helped him regain his concentrate on the game.
“Post Beijing I wished to surrender. I went for a meditation retreat, a 10-day Vipasana the place I’m presupposed to meditate for 10 hours a day. That’s after I realised that I used to be nonetheless in love with the method.
“Actually it was the boring and mundane that again brought me back to the sport,” the previous shooter, who now runs the Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance Centre (ABTP) stated. -
Tokyo Olympics hit 200-days-to-go mark
Image Source : GETTY IMAGES The countdown clock for the postponed Tokyo Olympics hit 200 days to go on Monday.
The countdown clock for the postponed Tokyo Olympics hit 200 days to go on Monday.
Also on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga mentioned he would take into account calling a state of emergency as new coronavirus circumstances surge to file numbers in Tokyo and neighbouring prefectures. Japan has by no means had a lockdown for COVID-19, trying to juggle the financial system and well being dangers.It’s nearing deadline time for Tokyo Olympic organizers, the International Olympic Committee, and varied Japanese authorities entities as they attempt to pull off the Games in the midst of a pandemic.
Officials have promised to announce concrete plans early within the new yr about learn how to get 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes into Japan; in regards to the security of the Athletes Village, and lots of of 1000’s of followers, media, judges, officers, broadcasters and VIPs.
The new yr is right here.
Suga pledged once more to carry the Olympics, saying it might be “proof that people have overcome the coronavirus.” And he mentioned vaccine approval could be accelerated by a month in order that vaccinations might start in February as an alternative of March.
Japan has attributed greater than 3,400 deaths to COVID-19, modest by international requirements for a rustic of 125 million, however worrying as new circumstances rise rapidly. A ballot final month by nationwide broadcaster NHK present 63% need the Olympics postponed or canceled.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and the governors of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures requested the nationwide authorities Saturday to declare the state of emergency after the capital noticed a each day file of 1,337 new circumstances on New Year’s Eve. That marked a soar of virtually 400 in only a few days.Yoshiro Mori, the president of the organizing committee and a former prime minister, once more dominated out any cancellation of the video games in an interview a number of days in the past with the Nikkan Sports newspaper. He was requested when a call would come about having native followers or followers from overseas.
“Sometime from March through May,” he replied. “The final deadline for a decision would be May, but it may come sooner.”
Any discount in followers will hit the organizing committee funds. Tokyo has budgeted $800 million for ticket gross sales, and any shortfall must be made up by authorities entities, that are footing many of the Olympic payments.
The official funds for the Tokyo Olympics was elevated final month to $15.4 billion, a rise of $2.8 billion due to the delay. However, a number of authorities audits the previous couple of years counsel the true quantity is about $25 billion.
All however $6.7 billion is public cash.
Mori indicated the opening ceremony, scheduled for July 23, might be troublesome with 1000’s of athletes and officers gathering to parade across the stadium. He additionally steered the ceremony could not be shortened, since tv broadcasters had paid for the profitable time. He mentioned some officers could be minimize out of the parade.
Television determines a lot of the Olympic scheduling and promoting broadcast rights accounts for 73% of the IOC’s revenue. Another 18% is from giant sponsors akin to Coca-Cola and Toyota.
The torch relay, which begins on March 25, may even face crowding with 10,000 runners anticipated throughout virtually 4 months. Coca-Cola and Toyota are the prime sponsors -
We needs to be mentally ready for a number of challenges on option to Olympics: Manpreet Singh
Keeping the fast-evolving COVID-19 state of affairs in thoughts, Indian males’s hockey staff captain Manpreet Singh says his facet will must be “mentally prepared” for the a number of obstacles it would face on its option to the Tokyo Olympics.
Pushed again by a yr because of the pandemic, the quadrennial sporting extravaganza is slated to be held in July-August.
“The largest studying from final yr was to not let exterior components have an effect on our aim. There might be many uncertainties however we have to solely fear about what’s inside our management and that’s to work in direction of being our greatest.
“There could be several challenges leading up to the Olympic Games this year and we need to be mentally prepared for it,” Manpreet mentioned, placing issues into perspective.
With solely 200 days to go for the Olympics, Manpreet and Rani, the ladies’s staff skipper, imagine the gamers in respective core teams should give their 100 per cent to have the ability to obtain their objectives in Tokyo.
“The next 200 days is going to be the most important period of our lives. Each one of us have to give our 100 per cent in training and in competition if we want to see ourselves make the Indian Team for Tokyo,” acknowledged the midfielder.
Rani agreed that within the subsequent few months the gamers might want to up their sport in all features.
“In the earlier nationwide camp which lasted over 4 months, now we have actually labored onerous to achieve the extent we had been beforehand at. In the following few months, our focus will likely be on bettering additional in all features of the sport.
“Our competitions this year will show us where we stand and what needs to be improved. From here on, each one of us have to work on being the best,” mentioned Rani, a Khel Ratna awardee.
She acknowledged that gamers shouldn’t take their place within the staff with no consideration and so they should showcase that they’re certainly one of the best to make the reduce.
“I look forward to good competition within the team as it brings out the best in us. Another thing we need to focus on is our mental fitness and also take care of our bodies in the lead up to the Games to avoid injuries,” Rani acknowledged. -
IOC president Thomas Bach reiterates Olympic Games stay precedence in 2021
Image Source : AP International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach reaffirmed in his New Year’s message that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games are the precedence for 2021. The 2020 sumemr Olympics had been postponed to 2021 attributable to Covid-19.
Speaking of Tokyo 2021, Bach reiterated his gratitude for the host’s dedication and dedication to organise the Games “in a safe and secure way for all the participants” that matches the post-coronavirus world.
“We all will live an unforgettable Games,” stated Bach, in response to Xinhua.As for Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, which can get underway six months after the 2021 summer season Games, Bach stated: “We have to already start at the beginning of this year to prepare for the upcoming 2022 Olympic winter Games in Beijing. And there, really all are on board. We see the same commitment and determination of our Chinese partners and friends, and all the Olympic venues are already ready for the best winter sports athletes in the world.”
Bach additionally highlighted the position sports activities performed on this pandemic-disrupted yr as represented by the organisation’s campaigns of “#StayStrong #StayActive #StayHealthy” and “Healthy Together” and referred to as for solidarity in face of future challenges.
“We need more solidarity. We need more solidarity within societies, and we need more solidarity among societies,” he stated. “By learning from this lesson of solidarity, we will turn the challenges of the future into opportunities again.” -
LOOKING AHEAD, 2021 AND BEYOND: The new Olympians
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What do you see once you have a look at a contingent of athletes at a multi-sport occasion? How many sports activities are you able to establish with only a look at their practitioners? Light and thin middle-and-long-distance runners. Tall swimmers, with unusually lengthy torsos and arms. Wrestlers with heavily-padded higher our bodies and fencers, carrying extra muscle of their legs.
Imagine that contingent, now with overawed, bespectacled teenagers, with neon of their hair. Or lean, match children sporting dreadlocks, topknots and fauxhawks, grooving and bobbing.
Yes, it’s enjoying on stereotypes however hardly frivolous. Expect the avid gamers and breakdancers to face out after they take the Asiad stage subsequent 12 months. Setting apart the philosophical debates, esports and breakdancing (or breaking) — regardless of having expert opponents and sizable followings — weren’t even labelled ‘fringe sports’ for lengthy. That tag was reserved for skateboarding, browsing and climbing, all set to make their Olympic bow in Tokyo.
Call it a bid to seize eyeballs, designs by companies or the altering sporting panorama. But gaming and breakdancing, lengthy the domains of the lazy and angsty, will now be giving rebellious edges to conventional multi-sport occasions. The two sports activities are poised to proceed using the momentum in 2021 earlier than subsequent 12 months’s debut on the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Select Indian avid gamers, although, have already had the expertise of sharing an Asian Games athletes’ village with the nation’s best.
Ankur Diwakar, a 30-year-old from Mumbai who represented the nation on the 2018 Asian Games the place esports debuted as an illustration occasion — remembers PV Sindhu and Dutee Chand lighting up upon assembly their latest colleagues.
“They were super-excited to learn more about it and wanted to play the games themselves,” Diwakar tells The Indian Express. “Everywhere I go, there are certain people wondering why there are people around me. ‘Are you a TikToker, an Instagrammer, an influencer?’ At the Asian Games, I was treated as an athlete.”
Diwakar performed soccer for Mumbai earlier than transferring his knowhow to the digital turfs of FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, the place he has dominated the circuits for greater than a decade as ‘JauntyTank’.“I met a group of athletes who already had been playing football games casually. They asked me to teach them specific skills, how to take a certain free kick or make a move, to beat their teammates,” says Diwakar. “I was so proud of my country that everyone, at least every athlete, knew what esports is.”
Gujarat’s Tirth Mehta, the bronze medallist within the Hearthstone competitors, shared an identical expertise with this paper shortly after the Games.
“The fact that we were staying at the athletes’ village, with our contingent was symbolic for me,” mentioned Mehta. “I met Hima Das and Amit Panghal. They were very excited to know that I won a medal by playing a video game. Indian coaches were asking me about the event and telling me that esports also takes massive effort.”
There is one thing to that reciprocity. Michael Payne, who was IOC’s first advertising and marketing and broadcast rights director and stayed in that position for 20 years, says it’s as a result of a median fashionable athlete is clued in.
“If you go to the Athletes’ village, where you’ve got the 10,000 greatest athletes… In their downtime, they are doing a lot of esports training,” says Payne. “You go to Formula One and the drivers are even officially training on esports, using the (virtual) tracks for their training mechanism.”
But pushing video video games at these occasions can be the work of huge machines and larger machinations.
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In 2008, Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba, famously proclaimed that the Chinese e-commerce titan “would rather starve to death than live on games”. In 2010, Ma mentioned that Alibaba wouldn’t make investments one penny in video games as a result of “China pursues single-child policy. If children play games all the time, what will our country be like in the future?”
In 2018, Alibaba’s sports activities arm Alisports sponsored esports as an exhibition occasion on the Jakarta Asian Games. At the closing ceremony, Ma was handed over the Asiad flag to deliver to Hangzhou, host of the 2022 Games and his and Alibaba’s hometown.
Alibaba’s U-turn on video video games comes after the corporate’s foray into the medium in 2014. It can be a bid to compete with arch rival Tencent within the battle for Southeast Asia’s esports market. Gaming is a strategic vertical for Chinese conglomerates, and a sure-fire technique to generate income overseas as a result of decrease cultural and language boundaries.
Six video games had been featured in Jakarta: Arena of Valor, Clash Royale and League of Legends are owned by Tencent. Hearthstone and Starcraft II are made by America’s Activision Blizzard, an organization Tencent has invested in. The solely title with no Tencent connection was Japanese giants Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer. The Asian Games look led to a bump within the gross sales of the aforementioned titles, and Alibaba too would search for a slice of cross-promotion.
Although the Asian Games has been conquered, Olympics, and zeroing in on appropriate titles for it, is a special problem altogether for esports. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach repeatedly mentioned that he wouldn’t stand for violence in video games — even cartoonish, aesthetic or over-the-top — successfully ruling out a significant chunk of {the catalogue}. Last April, Bach referred to as for the motion to “urgently” examine digital variations of sports activities and method sport publishers.
In principle, it ought to make gaming’s transition from recreation to Olympic sport extra palatable and simpler to observe. Last month, the primary official world championships in digital biking passed off, with 132 riders — together with Olympians and worlds medallists — from 22 nations racing within the fictional island of Watopia.
“Whether you’re playing with a football game or any one of the sports, I think there is a strong partnership and relationship,” says Payne. “It exposes new sports to the younger generation, exposes them to the rules, how it’s played, and it builds interest in the sport.”
That, nonetheless, would require high builders to change portfolio and concentrate on a distinct segment style of sports activities video games which aren’t FIFA or PES (Pro Evolution Soccer). The solely different titles which come near their ranges of polish are tied to North American properties resembling NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL.
Also, regardless of apparent curiosity, the IOC hasn’t moved in with esports as a result of lack of a transparent governing physique. The Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF) claims to be the “sole competent authority for electronic sports” within the area whereas South Korea’s International esports Federation organises parallel world championships.
“The IOC, when it wants to, can move surprisingly quickly for a mammoth organisation. Equally, it doesn’t want to get pressured into a decision that may look great today and clearly is the wrong horse tomorrow,” says Payne, for whom Tokyo could be the twentieth Olympic Games. “(In esports) there are three or four different organisations, all claiming to represent. If the IOC was to single out one, it would then be distorting the management profile, of ‘why that one and not the other three’.”
This 12 months holds the important thing for esports by way of fine-tuning and dealing in direction of that elusive Olympic spot.
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Breaking’s transfer from ‘cultural artform’ to a medal occasion has been comparatively simple. The sport flared, swiped and side-slid into the 2024 Paris Olympics programme after capturing the creativeness on the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.
“The decision on breakdancing came from the local organising committee in France, as a host nation is allowed to propose two or three sports that they think are really appropriate to their set-up and culture,” says Payne. “That’s why the Japanese for Tokyo 2020 proposed karate and baseball, neither of which are then being proposed by Paris. So, you’re allowing for an element of customisation in the local market.”
It’s a symbiotic relationship. Dynamic and concrete, breaking goes with the Paris Games’ blueprint of a extra inclusive, gender-balanced and youth-centred occasion. For the game, in the meantime, it’s a stage to tell and educate.“We have no intention of attempting to revolutionise the Olympics. Our only goal is to organise battles that respect, protect and reflect the history, culture and spirit of breaking,” says Jean-Laurent Bourquin, senior advisor to World Dance Sport Federation. “If we do that, the rest will take care of itself, as we are convinced that breaking brings a great deal of added value to the Olympic movement and will be an entertaining and inspiring addition to any Olympic event. Breaking truly has it all: amazingly talented dancers, hip-hop beats, MCs to keep things flowing, and the drama of head-to-head competition.”
Asked to envisage an Olympic contingent from 2036 Games, that includes B-boys and B-girls and E-athletes, Payne turns to at the moment’s gymnasts and swimmers.
“You look at the gymnasts or the synchronised swimmers of today, it might have raised eyebrows 40-50 years ago with people saying, ‘what are they doing on the Olympic programme?’ Now they are a core part of the programme. If you were to talk to the dancers, I’m not sure you would dispute some of their athletic capability,” says Payne. “The move to esports, that’s a big jump because you’re then looking at: if you want mental agility versus athletic agility. And you’ve got sports like chess, desperate to try and get on the programme.”
Diwakar, although, runs with the fantasy.
“It will absolutely happen. I only got serious for esports in 2011 and ’12, when it was being legitimised in Europe. I realised within 5-6 years India too will catch on,” says Diwakar.
He is 30, successfully 40 in gaming years. But whereas Diwakar admits that he’s not in his prime anymore, the dream of donning the India jersey once more and competing for an Asian Games medal in Hangzhou spurs him by means of the 10-hour every day coaching.
“This has given me a reason to train physically and keep my game sharp,” Diwakar says. “It still gives me chills, just thinking that I am preparing for the Asian Games. When I picked up the controller years ago, I had no clue that someday I would compete at the same level as a PV Sindhu or a Sushil Kumar.”[ad_2]