Top-ranked Brazil and Lithuania to meet in goalball group stages at Tokyo 2020 Monday, 10 May 2021
Rio 2016 gold medallists Lithuania are set to face world champions Brazil in the men’s goalball group stages at Tokyo 2020 after the tournament draw was made today.
The group stage draw was conducted at the headquarters of Tokyo 2020 at Harumi Island Triton Square Tower Y.
Tokyo 2020 sports director Mikako Kotani drew the 10 men’s and women’s teams in their respective draws.
Brazil and Lithuania provide the headline match in Pool A of the men’s competition, with the teams occupying first and second place respectively in the world rankings.
Tokyo 2020 goalball draw to be conducted on Monday Friday, 7 May 2021
The goalball draw for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics is now set to take place on Monday (10 May), having been delayed when Algeria pulled out of the competition.
Egypt replaced Algeria in the women s draw last month, but Goalball UK has threatened legal action, believing Britain should have been offered the place instead.
As only three teams competed at the Goalball African Championships, fewer than the four needed to meet International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) criteria for Regional Championships, Goalball UK believes Britain, the highest-ranked non-qualified nation, should be given the place.
Apr 29, 2021
Tokyo’s Olympic organizing committee is moving closer to pushing sponsors to declare gender equality and diversity goals as it looks to overcome a series of public gaffes.
The organizer of the Tokyo Games plans to unveil its own pledge to advance equality and inclusion next month, Chief Executive Officer Toshiro Muto said at a briefing earlier in the week, without elaborating. Mikako Kotani, who leads the organizer’s push to promote gender equality, said in a March interview that the Tokyo committee would follow up by asking sponsor companies, sports bodies and educational institutions to unveil their own targets.
Naoko Imoto holds an Olympic torch in Athens on March 19, 2020. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Former Olympic swimmer Naoko Imoto has dove back into the sports world, tackling gender equality issues as a newly appointed adviser to the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee.
“I think there are things that I can do to be of service,” said Imoto, 44.
Imoto, who competed for Japan in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, stayed away from sports after retiring from competitive swimming.
But the sexist remarks made by Yoshiro Mori, the organizing committee’s former president, earlier this year prompted her to become active again.
Imoto said she was shocked by the comments, which created an international uproar and forced Mori to step down.
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