CCYCLINGYCLING | Page 2 CCRICKETRICKET | Page 3 Van Aert Naim, Sarkar faces Pogacar star in hurdle in Bangladesh’s road race victory Friday, July 23, 2021 ATHLETICS Dhul-Hijjah 13, 1442 AH Qatar’s Barshim GULF TIMES starts favourite for high jump gold SP RT Page 4 SPOTLIGHT Tala, al-Rumaihi named Qatar’s fl ag bearers for opening ceremony By Sports Reporter Tokyo ower Tala Abujbara and shooter Mohamed al- Rumaihi were named as Qatar’s joint fl ag bear- Rers for today’s opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. The pair will share the honours following a directive by the International Olympic Committee in March 2020 where each team should have a fl ag bearer to represent both genders. Tala, who will become the fi rst Qatari female athlete to repre- sent Qatar in rowing at the Ol- ympics, said that she is proud of her participation at the Tokyo Games. The 29-year-old will be Qatar’s rower Tala Abujbara trains at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo yesterday. Qatar’s trap shooter Mohamed al-Rumaihi during training at Asaka Shooting Range in Tokyo yesterday. in action today in the women’s singles sculls heats at the Sea three years, said she was delighted The Japanese volunteers’ eff ort ed with a large team and within ously. Currently she is working as try. On the other hand, Qatar’s Beach volleyball duo of Cherif Forest Waterway. to be back in the country of which to serve the athletes refl ects the a group that posed a challenge a management consultant. Bashayer al-Manwari arrived in Younousse and Ahmed Tijan con- “I would like to do my best and she has only good memories. kindness of the Japanese people for me to continue and be able to Meanwhile, during the open- Tokyo yesterday. tinued their training session at work constantly on developing “I am very happy to be back as they are very friendly people,” achieve achievements.” ing ceremony, Greece will be fol- Al-Manwari will be the fi rst the Shiokaze Park ahead of their my skills because reaching a top again. Japan is my second coun- the rower said. Tala holds a bachelor degree in lowed by the Refugee Olympic Qatari athlete to hit the track at opening match against Adrian level requires great eff ort and hard try. I love the Japanese culture Regarding her involvement in biology and neuroscience from Team which had a short training women’s 100m event. She started Heidrich and Mirco Gerson of work. This will only be achieved and its people very much. The the sport of rowing, Tala said: “I Williams College in the United camp in Doha, Qatar before ar- out as a triple jump athlete, then Switzerland on Sunday. through perseverance and dili- atmosphere is very wonderful in started rowing during my univer- States. She has also received a riving to Tokyo. found herself in short distance On the other hand, al-Rumaihi gence. Rowing is very diffi cult and Tokyo, whether in the Olympic sity studies and I loved this sport master’s degree from HEC Paris The refugee team is comprised running. Al-Manwari is a West trained at Asaka Shooting Range. arduous,” she said. Village or the training centres and as it is outdoors and on the water University in management and of athletes who were displaced Asian champion in 2013 and fi ve- The trap shooter will begin his Tala, who had lived in Japan for everyone here is doing their best. as I train on a daily basis. I start- worked at Aspire Academy previ- after fl eeing their home coun- time GCC champion. campaign on July 28. FOCUS Scandal-hit Tokyo looks to fi nal torchbearer to mend battered image Battered by scandal on the Pandemic, fl agging support eve of the opening ceremo- ny, Tokyo 2020 organisers have the chance to patch up the Games’ image when they reveal who will carry the Ol- ympic flame for the final few steps to light the stadium’s cauldron. to make Tokyo Olympics The identity of the final torchbearer is one of the Games’ most closely held secrets yet speculation has swirled for months around well known athletes such as former Seattle Mariners opener a show like no other baseball player Ichiro Suzuki and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels, the latest A ceremony devoid of fans and low on athletes will set the tone for a Games mired in coronavirus uncertainty Japanese player to woo the United States. By Justin McCurry in Tokyo In the same week as two of the leading One sports figure who might The Guardian creative minds behind the ceremony were be able to soften public forced out of their roles – one for historical resentment over the hosting bullying, the other for a joke in the 1990s of the Games during the pan- hen a national leader as con- about the Holocaust – medical experts demic is four times Grand servative as Shinzo Abe was warned that by early next month daily Slam tennis champion Naomi persuaded to emerge from a cases in Tokyo could rise to their highest Osaka. With a Haitian father giant pipe in Rio dressed as levels since the start of the pandemic. and Japanese mother, Osaka Wthe world’s most famous plumber, it felt On Wednesday they reported 1,832 new represents what a more like Tokyo had already hatched plans to put cases, up by nearly 700 from the same day modern and more diverse on an Olympic show like no other when its the previous week. Japan’s chief health ad- Japan looks like. chance came four years later. viser, Shigeru Omi, said daily infections in Other well-known sports Coronavirus not only forced the summer the capital could reach a record of nearly figures talked about as pos- Olympics to be extended by 12 months; it 3,000 as the Games draw to a close in a sible torchbearers include has guaranteed that nothing as whimsical fortnight. While they sit out the state of three-time Olympic judo as a cosplaying politician will be making a emergency and wait for vaccines held up champion Tadahiro Nomura, reappearance at the offi cial start of the To- by supply issues, Japanese people denied a breaststroke gold medalist kyo 2020 Games. close-up view of the spectacle are far from Kosuke Kitajima and Saori The London 2012 opening ceremony has convinced by repeated assurances that the Yoshida, an Olympic wres- been touted as the “most popular” precur- Olympics will be “safe and secure”. tling champion who also won sor to the Games over the past quarter of a Appropriately, it will fall to Japan’s em- 13 straight world champion- century, but whatever transpires inside the peror, Naruhito, to refl ect the public mood ships. 68,000-seat main stadium in the Japanese and, perhaps, unite the country behind an Yet some commentators capital today evening will live long in the People take pictures as the Olympic rings lit up at dusk on the Odaiba waterfront in Tokyo yesterday. (AFP) unpopular Olympics about which he re- have called for a non-celebri- memory for very diff erent reasons. portedly harbours doubts of his own. Just ty, who would represent the This week Abe – who recently described licly distancing himself from an opening ings will be in bars and restaurants that only one of its kind Olympics.” as superstition dictates that speeches at country’s recovery from the those calling for the Games to be cancelled ceremony that the Japanese public will be are fl outing offi cial requests to ban alcohol Photographers who spied last night’s Japanese weddings should omit words 2011 earthquake and tsunami as “anti-Japanese” – said he would join forced to watch on TV. Days before the cer- and close at 8pm, risking fi nes in the proc- dress rehearsal in the distance posted such as “separate” to avoid off ending the that caused the Fukushima the list of dignitaries skipping the opening emony, Toyota – a top-tier sponsor – said ess. Although organisers have refused to images of swarms of drones forming the bride and groom, Naruhito will refrain nuclear disaster, devastated ceremony. Media reports said the former it would scrap Olympic-themed TV adverts release details, Marco Balich, an adviser to planet Earth and spelling out lyrics from from describing Tokyo 2020 as a “celebra- Japan’s northeast coastline prime minister thought it inappropriate to in Japan for the duration of the Games, the executive producer for Tokyo, said the John Lennon’s Imagine. tion”, according to media reports. Asked and killed nearly 20,000 attend when the host city, Tokyo, was in the adding that its president, Akio Toyoda, ceremony would be cognisant of public A slimmed-down contingent of digni- when a sceptical public would start look- people. midst of a surge in coronavirus restrictions would not be there on Friday. sentiment in the age of Covid-19. In con- taries will watch a dramatically reduced ing favourably on the Games, the Inter- Japan made a similar choice that forced organisers to ban domestic Other household names from corporate trast to the usual displays of mass chore- number of athletes line up behind their national Olympic Committee president, in 1964 — the last time Tokyo spectators from almost all Olympic events. Japan quickly followed suit: NTT, NEC, ography, giant props and bright lights, it fl agbearers. “It will be very meaningful, far Thomas Bach, confi dently replied: “When hosted the Games — when When successive opinion polls showed Panasonic and Fujitsu, along with the would be “sobering”, but also mindful of from the grandiosity of previous ceremo- the Olympic fl ame shines brightly over Yoshinori Sakai, a 19-year- a majority of Japanese opposed holding leaders of Keidanren, the country’s most the host nation’s history and culture.