Frustration as six athletes face isolation until eve of their races

Team GB are increasingly resigned to six athletes being forced to isolate for the full 14 days until the eve of their Olympic races, after they were identified as close contacts of a positive Covid-19 case.

Zak Seddon, the 3,000metres steeplechaser, took to social media on Thursday to express his shock and frustration as he entered day six of a quarantine which has left him unable to leave his hotel room except for socially-distanced training. This is despite recording more than 10 negative PCR tests for Covid-19 since arriving in Japan.

Five other British athletes are in the same position and, with only a week until the start of the athletics programme, the British Olympic Association admitted yesterday morning that it was making little progress in its representations to the International Olympic Committee.

There is relief, however, that the local authority in Yokohama, where many Team GB athletes have been based, has granted dispensation for the six athletes to leave their hotel for daily training sessions.

“We are working on it on an almost hourly basis – [but] I’d be lying if I said we were making a whole lot of progress,” said Sir Hugh Robertson, the chair of the British Olympic Association. “Where we have succeeded is to get a concession from the local authority in Yokohama that, even though they are in quarantine, they can train.

“There are athletes [from other nations] sitting in their hotel rooms. In terms of getting the quarantine lifted, we are right up against it.”

A total of six track and field athletes and two Team GB officials were deemed to have come into close contact with a passenger, who subsequently tested positive, on their British Airways flight to Tokyo last week. The positive case was not part of the Team GB delegation.

Team GB had hoped that the combination of the mass vaccinations of their athletes and daily testing would have ensured some leeway on the 14-day quarantine. “The rules we are operating under have changed on an almost daily basis in the run-up to this,” Robertson said.

The total number of Gamesrelated Covid-19 cases passed 100 yesterday as tens of thousands of athletes, support staff and media continued to arrive in Japan. No Team GB athletes have tested positive since arriving.