Javelin champ can recover in time despite virus

LONDON • Two-time javelin world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber's bid to also win the Commonwealth Games title was dealt a blow yesterday, after the Australian tested positive for Covid-19, team officials said.

The 30-year-old, who claimed her second straight world crown last week at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, returned a positive test for the coronavirus at the Australian team camp for the Games, which started in Birmingham yesterday.

But with the women's javelin final not until Aug 7, there is still time for the event favourite to recover and compete.

"Kelsey-Lee Barber is not out (of the Games)," the team's high-performance manager Andrew Faichney told the Australian media. "I have to reconfirm, but I think the organising committee has said that if an athlete is well and healthy enough, then they are going to be able to compete, and so that is what we are working through."

Australia's team are housed in five separate locations in the central English city to mitigate the risk of catching Covid-19, and the team have implemented a mandatory mask-on rule when not in competition.

They have also been barred from supporting their teammates at other events due to the threat of contracting the virus while several athletes, including the women's T20 cricketers, gave yesterday's opening ceremony a skip, over safety concerns.

Barber, who won the bronze medal at last year's Tokyo Olympic Games, retained her world title with a throw of 66.91m, ahead of American Kara Winger and Japan's Haruka Kitaguchi.

Having won bronze and silver at the past two editions of the Commonwealth Games, she has been tipped to finally end her winning drought in Britain after her heroics in Eugene.

While Barber will be keeping her fingers crossed for a quick recovery, Birmingham has come too soon for Olympic bronze medal-winning decathlete Ash Moloney.

The 22-year-old was forced to withdraw from the world championships due to a knee injury and Faichney yesterday told the local media that he would not recover in time.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE