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Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Samoa withdraws weightlifters over Covid-19 curbs but other athletes to attend
- Weightlifting team ‘cannot travel’ due to country’s state of emergency, says Samoa Olympic Committee president
- ‘It’s terrible, it’s very disheartening,’ says Samoan weightlifting chief
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Samoa’s Olympic committee said on Thursday it was withdrawing its weightlifting team from the Tokyo Games, set to start in just over three weeks, because of Covid-19 curbs, but added that other athletes already overseas would attend.
The withdrawal represents the latest setback for Japan’s fraught efforts to stage the world’s biggest sporting event during a pandemic, after it was delayed last year.
“The only team that cannot travel is the weightlifting team, which is based here in Samoa,” Patrick Fepuleai, the president of the Pacific nation’s Olympic committee, said.
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“We are still under a state of emergency. We’re in lockdown.”
However, Samoa would have a presence at the Games, he said. “We are still sending a team to the Olympics,” he added. “Our teams are scattered all around.”
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