The Tokyo 2020 dreams of Belgium’s Jelle Geens have, at least in part, been ruined after he tested positive for COVID-19.
The news, confirmed by the Belgian Olympic Committee, means that one of the fastest runners in the field will not be able to start in the Men’s Individual event, which starts at 2230 UK-time on Sunday night.
Geens is a class act – winner of WTS Montreal in 2019 and second early this season at the WTCS Yokohama – and a key member of Belgium’s mixed relay squad.
Geens still has Tokyo relay hope
The Belgian team qualified by comfortably winning the Mixed Relay Qualification Event in Lisbon, and was perhaps an outside contender for a podium position. Those hopes are not completely over yet, as the event schedule – and a subsequent negative test – mean that the Joel Filliol-coached athlete could still be available to travel to Tokyo from his Girona base, ahead of the mixed relay event next week.
Should he not be available, then Noah Servais is on standby as their reserve.
The news – not the first, and surely not the last from these Olympic Games – provides just another reminder of the invisible tightrope every competitor is effectively walking, where five years of focus can be taken away at a moment’s notice. Tough news indeed.
Best wishes to Jelle, and we do hope he will still be able to make that debut of the relay event next week.
