Marathon runners Khoarahlane Seutloali and Neheng Khatala Seutloali are the only two athletes from Lesotho who qualified for the global multicoded showpiece.
They both attained their qualifying marks in South Africa – Khoarahlane met the qualifying standard of 2:11:30 by clocking a time of 2:11:04 for a fifth-place finish at the Cape Town Marathon in 2019, while Neheng attained her golden ticket with a victory at the Langa Marathon in Cape Town in May after her time of 2:28:06 surpassed the women’s entry standard of 2:29:30.
The women’s Olympic marathon will be run on August 7, while the men’s event will take place the following day. – Staff reporter
Sorry, we erred. Please go back home
Six Polish swimmers are fuming after the country’s swimming federation put 23 athletes on a plane to Japan when they were only meant to send 17.
A statement signed by members of the swimming team demanded the resignation of Polish Swimming Federation president Pawel Slominski and the management board over the apparent administrative bungle.
In a four-page statement explaining the error, Slominski expressed “regret, sadness and bitterness” about the athletes’ situation.
He attempted to apportion some of the blame to the country’s Olympic committee and the international federation that sets the qualifying rules. – Reuters
Lost and found Ugandan star sent home
Weightlifter Julius Ssekitoleko, who went missing from the pre-Olympic training camp last Friday, has been found and sent back to Uganda without competing in the Games.
The 20-year-old, who was staying in Izumisano, a city located in Osaka Prefecture, was found in Yokkaichi in the central Mie Prefecture this week.
The city and his team had been trying to locate him with help from police.
Ssekitoleko left a note at his hotel saying he wanted to work in Japan as life in his home country was difficult. According to the police, he arrived at Nagoya Station, about 200km from Izumisano, last Friday and joined a Ugandan man believed to be someone he knew in the major central city, and he then moved to the neighbouring Gifu Prefecture.
Nagoya is the prefectural capital of Aichi, where about 150 Ugandan people – thesecond-largest Ugandan community in Japan – were living as of late last year, according to government data. – Japan Times