New Delhi: In the wake of the prevailing pandemic, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has issued a set of guidelines for shooting and hockey matches in the upcoming Tokyo Games. While losing semifinalists in hockey will get another shot at Olympic gold if one of the finalist teams is forced out due to Covid, a Covid-infected team/athlete can be replaced in mixed team shooting events if tested positive for the virus before the competition.
This has been made clear in the Games’ Sport-Specific Regulations (SSR) unveiled on Sunday. The IOC developed the SSR as a contingency measure that will be put in motion in case a confirmed Covid case is reported in any sport so as to ensure smooth conduct of events.
“In hockey, teams unable to compete due to Covid will not be disqualified and will be marked as DNS (Did Not Start). In case a team in the knockout stages is no longer able to compete due to Covid, their minimum ranking achieved will be protected and, if time allows, their opponent will advance to the next round.
“Therefore, if a team is unable to participate in the final, the team that was eliminated by the Covid impacted team will be brought into the final to compete for the medal on the field of play.
“The other losing semi-finalist will be awarded the bronze medal,” the regulations developed for hockey read.
The regulations, however, did not say what could be the possible scenario if both finalist teams end up being affected by the virus. It also did not specify what happens in case Covid ends up affecting even the losing semifinalists.
Similarly for shooting, if an athlete/team is not able to compete due to Covid, they will not be disqualified and will be marked as DNS. There will be no change to the competition format or groupings, as per the IOC’s Tokyo 2020 SSR.
“For the mixed team event, in case an athlete can no longer take part in the event, but the NOC (National Olympic Committee) has another athlete on-site, the NOC can replace an athlete team member,” the IOC stated.
However, the same leeway has not been granted to the individual events in shooting, which will see 356 athletes from as many as 100 countries competing for glory in Tokyo, with the women’s 10m air rifle and 10m air pistol events drawing maximum participants.
Last month, the IOC Executive Board had underlined the three main principles to provide consistency across sports where possible while developing the guidelines.
The principles taken into consideration by the IOC were “No athlete or team should be designated as ‘disqualified’ for Covid reasons, instead ‘Did Not Start (DNS)’ or an equivalent sport-specific designation will be used where the athletes or team cannot take part in the competition.”
“The minimum result of the athlete/team will be protected, considering the phase of competition at which they could not compete.
“(And) where possible the place of an athlete or team unable to compete will be filled by the next most eligible athlete or team…”
The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8 under extraordinary circumstances owing to the raging pandemic.
The Games were turned into a ‘TV-only event’ after the Japanese government barred spectators inside venues following the imposition of an emergency to control the spread of the deadly virus.
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