Olympics and softball: Australia trains in Tokyo. “But these are very difficult days.”

The only foreign team to be relegated to the Tokyo Games is the Australian softball team, the tournament in which Italy will also take part (and which in Friuli is about to train for the European Championships). From Tokyo, Australian players say they have no contact with the locals, can’t go to restaurants, and can’t see the sights in their spare moments. The games are approaching (starting on the 24th with the celebration, but the tournament starts two days earlier in Fukushima) always run between training rooms and hotel rooms, according to a very strict sanitary protocol.

Isolation

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Ten to Ota City, one of 23 special districts that make up the city of Tokyo, in preparation for the Olympics, Australian girls want to compete for the gold medal against the Americans. “The situation is not easy – says coach Ling Haro – and inevitable, I would say the real challenge is one: to fight boredom, because there are dead times and we are not allowed to do almost anything.” Upon arriving in Japan, a country where only 4% of the population has already been vaccinated for Covid, the entire delegation had to spend three days in quarantine in a hotel, where three floors of the Australia Softball set were reserved. Players, staff and attendants of various kinds stayed in their hotel room for 72 hours, with meals left outside the door. After the period of isolation, the team was given separate entrances and exits from the hotel, an elevator for exclusive use, as well as meeting rooms and a gym.

Lucky

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“I have no idea – resumes Harrow – if there are other clients in this hotel besides us: we haven’t had a chance to find out if there are any. We are, however, lucky, because we were able to run three tests and each time we spent five hours In the playground.The alternative was to stay in the room and watch Netflix or play cards or using the mobile.I understand we should also do this as a form of protection for the locals, but the impossibility of communicating with people is a shame.We like to have contacts,also because everyone is wearing A mask but when we go by bus we seem to understand that people are smiling at us. Life in this bubble, and so it will be in the games too, is tough, but we have been working for years to win the gold and we should focus on that.”