China’s preparation for Tokyo Olympics in order amid epidemic

BEIJING: Chinese athletes have been gearing up for the 2020 Tokyo Games, despite challenges posed by the sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

“Our teams are all focusing on their training and competitions,” said a spokesman for China’s General Administration of Sport on Thursday.“We are confident of building a strong Chinese team at the Olympic Games as well as fighting against the novel coronavirus,” he said.

According to the spokesman, the General Administration of Sport has taken a series of measures to take good care of the athletes and at the same time ensure their normal training.

All national teams are now training under enclosed conditions. The apartments, training venues and dining halls are all sealed off to prevent virus infection.

Teams are allowed to travel abroad in advance or prolong their overseas training camps to make sure their participation in Olympic qualifiers not be affected by the epidemic.

National teams of table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, boxing and women’s football are all training overseas and will take part in the qualification events directly without going back to China.

The Chinese Olympic Committee has also enhanced the communication with the international sports federations, the local governments hosting the events and the sports organizations, introducing epidemic control efforts on the teams and strengthening prevention work, the spokesman said.

Because of the coronavirus, the Chinese judo team had to withdraw from the Grand Slam in Paris as the French Embassy postponed its reopening time after the Spring Festival and couldn’t give the judokas their visas.—