Category Archives: Sport

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Team GB v Japan football, and swimming begins – live!

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Meanwhile in the men’s hockey Great Britain are running down time in the fourth period and leading South Africa 3-1.

A deflected strike on goal from Japan was their best opening of the match so far, but England hold them at bay in the women’s football. Still no score as we tick past 27 minutes at the Sapporo Dome.

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Lockdown reawakened my childhood love of chess. Now I can’t do anything else | Phil Wang

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The alert I get when an opponent has made their move gives me the shot of excitement I used to get from social media notifications

Lord help me, I am in the whirlwind throes of the beautiful game. Online chess. The ancient pastime enjoyed a boom late last year. And I got caught squarely in its blast. Chess.com, the internet’s leading chess platform, saw an eruption in activity, triggered by lockdown idleness and (my own personal inciting event) Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, which landed in October 2020, and showed the world that chess is actually really cool. As long as you ignore the actual chess and focus instead on the narcotic-fuelled psychodrama of a very beautiful woman and put the kid from Love Actually in a cowboy hat, for some reason.

But there was enough actual chess in the show to reawaken my old love for the game. I’d played a lot as a child, as you can probably tell from my face. I played in the school club and entered competitions. I collected sets, including a Simpsons one and a Lord Of The Rings one, allowing me to play the pieces from one board against those of the other. No, I didn’t go out much as a kid. But how could I when I was busy battling the dark forces of Sauron with an army of Barts?

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: Naomi Osaka lights cauldron at opening ceremony – live!

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Get up to speed with all the big questions with Simon Burnton’s Olympic primer:

Related: Tokyo 2020 – all your key Olympic questions answered

Some cycling news: the men’s road race takes place at 3am BST, 11am local time on Saturday, but one man who won’t be at the start line is Simon Geschke, after the German rider tested positive for Covid-19.

Geschke, who was set to be part of a four-man German team, had been staying away from the Olympic village with a group of other cyclists, all of who have initially tested negative for Covid.

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‘There’s magic in misery’: ultramarathon runners cross Death Valley – in a drought

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A hundred athletes are picked each year for the 135-mile race. This time the climate was especially brutal

In the Badwater Basin at the bottom of California’s Death Valley, the air feels like a giant hair dryer and the pavement can melt the soles of your shoes.

Yet on Monday night, 100 of the world’s top endurance runners set off on what has become known as “the world’s toughest foot race”, carving 135 miles of terrain through one of the planet’s most extreme climates at the most intense time of year.

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Michael Vaughan says England players may not make Ashes tour if families are barred

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  • Former Test captain warns of potentially farcical series
  • Calls on Australian government to issue travel exemptions

Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan has warned that the upcoming Ashes series in Australia could descend into farce if the families of England players are not allowed into the country.

With the visiting team facing a gruelling months-long schedule likely to be subject to a host of pandemic-related restrictions, Vaughan said some players may choose not to make the trip if they cannot see their loved ones for such a long time.

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Sha’Carri Richardson’s look is over the top – that’s why it matters

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She’s out of the Olympics, but the US sprinting star’s ‘extra’ style makes an important statement about black womanhood

Despite not being part of Team USA after a failed drugs test, Sha’Carri Richardson made a reappearance yesterday in an advert for Beats by Dre soundtracked by a new song from Kanye West. With her trademark long nails, long lashes and fire-cracker hair, Richardson has underlined the point that, Olympian or not, she is one of 2021’s most electrifying style icons.

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Tokyo 2020 U-turn allows social media teams to show athletes taking the knee

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  • IOC and Tokyo 2020 organisers overturn opening-day ban
  • @Olympics tweet picture of GB’s Lucy Bronze taking knee

The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 organisers have performed a U-turn over their stance to stop their social media teams from posting pictures of athletes taking the knee at these Olympic Games.

The decision comes after the Guardian revealed they had issued a diktat against showing such images just hours before Team GB’s women’s first football match against Chile on Wednesday.

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Tokyo 2020 social media teams banned from showing athletes taking the knee

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  • IOC and Tokyo 2020 organisers gave instructions on Tuesday
  • Reference made to images from Team GB v Chile football match

The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 organisers have banned their social media teams from posting pictures of athletes taking the knee at these Olympic Games, the Guardian can reveal.

An insider said the message was delivered from on high on Tuesday evening Tokyo time, with a specific reference to Team GB’s women’s first football match against Chile, just hours before it kicked off in Sapporo on Wednesday.

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Olympic Games highlights: your day-by-day guide to the best bits in Tokyo

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From the spectacular opening ceremony to the final gold in the marathon, via the pool, the beach and the stadium, your indispensable guide to the Games

The opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium will be spectacular but has been shrouded in secrecy so far. Because of Covid restrictions fewer athletes than usual will be joining the parade of nations. As usual Greek athletes will lead the march behind the flags with the Americans and French last before the entry of the host Japanese team. Like the final event of the Games it will be a marathon and a lump in the throat is inevitable.

That opening ceremony does not leave a lot of time for events on the first real day of competition although Britain’s rowers are quickly into action on the Sea Forest Waterway. The women’s quadruple sculls, Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, Hannah Scott, Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne and Lucy Glover are a strong combination and Team GB expect another healthy haul of medals.

The other events on the first Friday are the individual ranking rounds for men and women in archery at Yumenoshima Park. The six-strong British team includes Naomi Folkard who is competing in her fifth Games with the 18-year-old James Woodgate competing in his first Olympics. India will be hoping to build on their recent impressive World Cup displays.

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Confident Brisbane eagerly awaits its time to shine as host of the 2032 Olympics

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The Queensland capital wants the world to know how far it has come, with the IOC set to confirm winning Olympic Games bid on Wednesday

The last time Brisbane bid to host the Olympic Games, many locals still referred to the place as “a big country town”.

The Queensland capital’s opponents to host the 1992 games argued the city was too small and unknown. There are few similar doubts this time around, as Brisbane is set to be anointed host of the 2032 Olympics.

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Olympics to begin but softball opener is unlikely to distract a fearful nation | Justin McCurry

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With Covid cases mounting and local resistance escalating ever higher, the hope is that the actual action beginning on Wednesday will dampen down the criticism

The Olympic softball teams of Japan and Australia will have to produce something close to a classic this week if they are to divert attention from an increasingly chaotic build-up to the Tokyo Games.

In normal times memories of the scandals that blighted preparations for the Games – from allegations of vote-buying during the bidding stage to high-profile resignations over sexism – would shrink into the background as soon as the first pitch is delivered at the Azuma baseball stadium in Fukushima on Wednesday in the opening action from the Olympics.

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Rhik Samadder tries … wakeboarding: ‘I scream underwater with every faceplant’

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Everyone needs some novelty right now, so our writer is tackling a new activity each week. First, he gets dragged perilously quickly around a lake

I used to ride bendy buses without holding on to the poles, pretending I was in Point Break. Pathetic. Yet the fantasy returned recently, after I decided to stop taking life for granted and try something new every week. To kick off, I wondered if it was possible for a hapless urbanite to learn to surf, ideally in less than an hour. No, said a few professionals, suggesting I try wakeboarding instead. I didn’t know what that was. Neither did anyone I know. “Is that when they pour water over your face to extract information?” asked my girlfriend, with insufficient concern.

“No, but it is an extreme sport,” chuckles Dave Novell, the water sports manager at Liquid Leisure in Windsor, the largest aquapark in Europe. Banana boats zip around us at a large freshwater lake set in lush countryside. How so? Wakeboarding involves being strapped to a plank, then towed by what looks like a coat hanger, attached to either a speedboat or an overhead cable system that whips you around at 19mph (30km/h).

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Tour de France: stage 21 finale – live!

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Good afternoon. Hot enough for you? The mercury is rising towards 30 degrees in Paris, where the Tour de France will conclude in around four hours. The final stage is seen as a procession save for the final sprint along the Champs-Élysées, although it probably won’t feel like that for most of the pack after three weeks of racing.

This edition of the Tour has been defined by two people (OK, maybe three people). Firstly, the relentless, remarkable Tadej Pogacar, who is about to follow up last year’s last-gasp win with a very different victory. The Slovenian has been supremely dominant, in control of this race throughout the entire month of July.

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South Africa footballers test positive for Covid-19 in Tokyo Olympic Village

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  • South Africa men’s squad in quarantine after three positives
  • Games president claims a ‘plan in place’ for village outbreak

Two South African footballers have become the first athletes in the Olympic Village to test positive for Covid-19, raising fears that the virus may force a growing number of competitors out of the Tokyo Games when they begin on Friday.

Related: Tokyo 2020: guide to the venues for the delayed Olympic Games

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Tom Daley: ‘I took up crochet during the pandemic’

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The diver, 27, talks about fear on the diving board, marrying an older man, becoming a father and maintaining his six-pack

I’ve always been an adrenaline seeker. I love rollercoasters, waterslides – diving is an extension of that. I grew up by the sea in Plymouth. From an early age my parents encouraged my brothers and me to swim in case we got into trouble in the water. Diving gives me that mix of being in the water, but at the same time the adrenaline rush of jumping off something really high.

I went through a stage of not being able to take off on the diving board. When I was younger and my arms and legs were growing at different rates, I used to get scared to go out there. I would stand on the end of the board and literally not be able to move my body. It’s called Loss Move Syndrome, where you suddenly freeze mentally and physically, forget how do to things. Even today, there are times when I get scared standing on the 10m board, but you need that little bit of fear, that adrenaline rush, to make you focus, to stop you making mistakes.

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Tokyo Olympics: Covid case found at athletes’ village, raising infection fears

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Organisers in Japan confirm that a visitor from abroad who is involved in organising the Games has tested positive

A person has tested positive for Covid-19 at the Tokyo Olympics athletes’ village, organisers said, adding to concerns about infections at the Games which begin next week.

Related: Thomas Bach promises ‘safe and secure’ Olympics as Tokyo Covid cases soar

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Teenage skateboard superstar Sky Brown: ‘I begged my parents to let me go with Team GB’

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When she lands in Tokyo, Sky Brown will become one of the UK’s first Olympic skateboarders – and, at 13, the team’s youngest ever member. Will her next trick be a gold medal?

The sun is setting on another hazy summer evening in Oceanside, California, a city 35 miles north of San Diego, and a tiny figure is flying through the sky. She bends her knees, clutches the end of her skateboard and comes gliding down an enormous ramp, her sun-bleached surfer hair bouncing in the wind.

“That was sick!” Sky Brown shouts, as she makes an immaculate landing. The skateboarder is ranked third in the world and on 4 August will take to her board to represent Team GB at the postponed Tokyo Olympics. When she competes in the women’s park event, she won’t just be one of the UK’s first ever Olympic skateboarders, she will also be Team GB’s youngest ever summer Olympian. Aged 13 years and 23 days, she will surpass Margery Hinton, who was 13 years and 44 days when she swam at Amsterdam in 1928.

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Prosecutors open investigation into doping allegations against Bahrain Victorious

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  • Prosecutor’s office launch preliminary investigation
  • Police searched riders’ rooms and requested training files

French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into doping allegations against Tour de France cycling team Bahrain Victorious after police searched the outfit’s accommodation and bus on Wednesday following the 17th stage of the race.

The prosecutor’s office in the port city of Marseille said the investigation was into “acquisition, transport, possession, import of a prohibited substance or prohibited method for use by an athlete without medical justification”.

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Social networks’ anti-racism policies belied by users’ experience

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Analysis: Twitter, Facebook and others condemn hateful speech, so why is it so easy to find on their sites?

The world’s biggest social networks say racism isn’t welcome on their platforms, but a combination of poor enforcement and weak rules have allowed hate to flourish.

In the hours after England’s loss to Italy in the European Football Championship, both Twitter and Facebook, which owns Instagram, issued statements condemning the swelling racist abuse.

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