Daily Times

TOKYO: Two-time world pole vault champion Sam Kendricks was ruled out of the Tokyo Games on Thursday after testing positive for coronavirus, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee confirmed. “We are saddened to confirm that Sam Kendricks tested positive for Covid-19 and will not compete in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020,” the USOPC said in a statement on Twitter. Shortly after news of Kendricks’ case emerged, Argentine pole vaulter German Chiaraviglio revealed he had also tested positive and would not take part in the Games. Kendricks won back-to-back gold medals at the 2017 and 2019 world championships and was one of the main contenders for the title in Tokyo along with Swedish world record holder Armand Duplantis. The charismatic 28-year-old, a bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is now in isolation, the USOPC said. The positive tests come just two days before the start of the men’s pole vault competition on Saturday.