Australian softball team the first to reach Tokyo

Jun 02, 2021 06:00 am

Australia's softball squad arrived in Tokyo for a pre-Olympic camp yesterday, the first national team to come to Japan for training since the Games were postponed, even as a majority of Japanese oppose staging the Games due to Covid-19.

Japan is battling a fourth wave of Covid-19 eight weeks before the scheduled start of the Olympics, with 10 regions including Tokyo under a state of emergency until June 20, but the country's vaccine roll-out has been slow.

Only about three per cent of Japan's population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Vaccinations of Japan's Olympic athletes began yesterday.

The Australian softball squad will attend a 47-day camp in the city of Ota, some 80km north-west of Tokyo.

All members of the delegation have been vaccinated and are scheduled to be tested for the coronavirus daily. - REUTERS