Japan swimmers back stricken pin-up Ikee

TOKYO: Japanese swimmers have vowed to step up their efforts in support of Rikako Ikee, the poster girl for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics who has announced she is suffering from leukaemia.

Earlier this week, the 18-yearold swim queen tweeted that she had cut short a training camp in Australia after feeling unwell and had been diagnosed with the illness on her return to Japan.

The news sent shockwaves around the sport and well-wishes have flooded in for Ikee, a genuine title contender at the 2020 Olympics in her home city.

“I was shocked,” two-time world champion Daiya Seto said. “With the Tokyo Olympics on the horizon, people will no doubt be urging her to get well and compete. I just pray she gets better soon and we can see her cute smile again — all we can really do is pray,” said the swimmer.

TEFERA BREAKS WORLD INDOOR 1,500M RECORD

BIRMINGHAM: Ethiopian teenager Samuel Tefera outduelled compatriot Yomif Kejelcha to break the world indoor 1,500m record in Birmingham on Saturday.

Tefera, 19, clocked three minutes, 31.04 seconds at the IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting to take down Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1997 record of 3:31.18. It came on the same Birmingham track where Tefera had won the world title last year. Tefera kicked past Kejelcha after the bell for the final lap and charged to finish line.

Kejelcha finished second in a personal best of 3:31.58.

VETTEL-LECLERC TEAM UP FOR FERRARI

MONACO: Former world champion Nico Rosberg is “done with driving” but ahead of 2019 Formula 1 season, the racer in him is most excited about Ferrari fielding two “number one drivers” in Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc for the first time in a decade.

Twenty-one year old Leclerc is being touted as a future world champion after an impressive debut season with Sauber last year. Ferrari had a clear number one and two in Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen for the past four seasons but all of that is set to change with the arrival of

Leclerc.