Tokyo’s new COVID cases top 3,000

TOKYO — Tokyo reported 3,177 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, setting an all-time high and exceeding 3,000 for the first time days after the start of the Games.

That exceeded the record of 2,848 set the previous day and brought the total for the Japanese capital to 206,745 since the pandemic began early last year.

Tokyo has been under a fourth state of emergency since July 12 ahead of the Olympics, which began last Friday despite widespread public opposition and concern that they could further worsen the outbreak.

Experts say Tokyo’s surge is being propelled by the new, more contagious Delta variant of the virus, and there is no evidence of the disease being transmitted from Olympic participants to the general public.

Nationwide, Japan reported 7,630 cases on Tuesday for a total of 882,823.

Athletes barred

Twenty athletes, including 10 from Nigeria, will not be allowed to participate in track and field at the Olympics because they did not meet anti-doping testing requirements in the lead-up to the Games.

The Athletics Integrity Unit, which runs the antidoping program for the sport, requires athletes from countries categorized as “high risk” because of deficiencies in their testing programs to be given three nonotice, out-of-competition tests in the 10 months leading to a major event.

Each of the seven socalled Category A countries had at least one athlete banned from the Games. The countries are Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Ukraine. AIU does not release the names of the banned athletes.

Beach volleyball

American beach volleyball players Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil dispatched Kenya in just 25 minutes, the fastest women’s match since the Olympics adopted their current format.

The U.S. pair beat Brackcides Khadambi and Gaudencia Makokha 21-8, 21-6 to improve to 2-0 and almost certainly clinch a spot in the knockout round of 16.