Julius Ssekitoleko, the 20-year old Uganda weightlifter, who had come to participate in the Tokyo Olympics has been missing since July 16
The New York Times (NYT) had reported that Julius was one of the 9 Ugandan weightlifters who had reached the Osaka prefecture of Izumisano in western Japan in June and had started training for the games.
When did Uganda weightlifter Julius Ssekitoleko go missing?
Julius was supposed to participate in the 67 kg category but he got rejected and he was supposed to go back to Uganda on July 20, Tuesday. He went missing on July 16 around noon, as he was not in his room and he was also supposed to submit his COVID-19 daily test results.
Japan is currently undergoing the fourth state of lockdown to curb the rising COVID-19 cases in the country. On July 16, Japan reported a total of 831, 193 Covid-19 cases and a total of 15,014 deaths.
How are the officials at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 dealing with this situation?
According to the NYT, one coach and one player had tested positive for COVID-19 after coming to Japan last month. But it wasn’t revealed that whether it was Julius who had tested positive for COVID-19. Although, his teammates did see him on the morning of July 16, before he disappeared. The organizers had requested to the players to stay in the bio-bubble, to stop the curb of COVID-19.
Katsunobu Kato, who is the Chief Cabinet Secretary to the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshishide Suga had mentioned that the police and city officials were trying an “all-out effort” to locate the Ugandan wrestler.
Tokyo Olympics 2021
The Tokyo Olympics is slated to begin on July 23 and will go on till August 8. A total of 14 weightlifting events would be held during the games. Seven weightlifting matches would be organized for male and seven for female weightlifters. Keeping the COVID-19 situation in mind, international spectators would not be allowed to enter the stadiums. Moreover, the medals would be presented on trays in contactless ceremonies to the deserving winners and a total of 339 medal ceremonies are expected to take place during the marquee event.
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