THE INTENSIFIED REPORT

Sprinter Blessing Okagbare is out of the Tokyo Olympics after being suspended for failing a drugs test. The Nigerian - a rival to Great Britain's Dina Asher-Smith - had won her 100m heat on Friday and was due to race in the semi-finals on Saturday. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said the 32-year-old had tested positive for a human growth hormone following an out-of-competition test on 19 July. The AIU said Okagbare was notified of her provisional suspension on Saturday. It added it would not be making any further comment at this stage. Okagbare, Olympic long jump silver medallist in Beijing in 2008, had posted a time of 11.05 seconds in her 100m heat and was set to line up against Asher-Smith and Jamaica's Elaine Thompson-Herath in the first semi-final. The news comes two days after 10 other Nigerian athletes were declared ineligible for the Games. The AIU ruled they were unable to take part because of non-compliance with out-of-competition drug testing requirem

The Japanese capital has recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus infections for the sixth time in the past week, with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reporting 1,387 new cases on July 20. The new cases came after Tokyo registered 727 infections on July 19. Tokyo remains under a fourth COVID-19 state of emergency as it prepares to launch the Olympic Games on July 23. The capital saw an average of 631.7 coronavirus cases per day in the first week of July. The daily average for the second week rose to 823.3. In June, Tokyo recorded a total of 12,979 new coronavirus cases, or a daily average of 432.6, down from the daily average of 705.8 in May. By July 19, a total of 2,270 people had died of COVID-19 in Tokyo since the pandemic began in the spring of 2020. Tokyo has recorded 191,230 infections to date, the most of any of Japan's 47 prefectures. As of July 19, there were 2,346 COVID-19 patients in hospital, 60 with severe symptoms. (Mainichi)