TOKYO: Pole vault world record-holder Armand Duplantis on Saturday revealed how fate intervened to help him avoid a potentially ruinous meeting with Covid-positive rival Sam Kendricks at the Tokyo Olympics.
Duplantis, speaking after he sailed through qualification into the final, said he was "freaked out" by Kendricks' positive test, and that he only missed a coffee appointment with the American because a conversation with his girlfriend overran.
Two-time world champion Kendricks and Argentina's German Chiaraviglio were both withdrawn from the Games after testing positive.
"It's so sad because Sam was in really good shape and he always jumps high at a championships, so basically there is a medal spot free now," said the Swede.
"I was going to meet with him in the Olympic Village and have a coffee but I was speaking to my girlfriend for too long and missed it. So it's thanks to her that we weren't together."
Three members of Australia's athletics contingent are isolating after being designated close contacts of Kendricks, and the country's entire track and field spent two hours in precautionary isolation before being released.
Duplantis was one of 14 men to go through to Tuesday's final after clearing 5.75 metres at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium.
The 21-year-old, known as "Mondo", had one blip at 5.50m, but will be odds-on favourite to claim Olympic gold.
Duplantis predicted that the Olympic record of 6.03, set by Brazil's Thiago Braz in the 2016 Rio Olympics, could well be broken in Tokyo.
"I'm just going to go 110 percent for it no matter what," he said. "I just need to 'do me'."
He added: "I want to win the gold, that's been the dream since I was a little kid, being on top of the podium.
"It's an important moment for me. Basically my whole life has built up to this moment and I've wanted to be here since I was three years old jumping out in my parents' backyard."
France's Renaud Lavillenie, the 2012 gold medallist who won silver in Rio, did not make it easy for himself, failing twice at his entry height of 5.50m before going over at the third attempt.
"I really had no idea about my shape before coming here but I had to push very hard to get into the final," said Lavillenie, who sustained a sprained ankle earlier this month.
- Lavillenie eyes podium -
There was no such luck for Poland's Pawel Wojciechowski, the world champion in 2011, who bailed out at the same height.
Joining Duplantis and Lavillenie will be reigning Olympic champion Braz.
Poland's Piotr Lisek and US pair Christopher Nilsen and Kc Lightfoot also went through along with Ernest Obiena, bidding to win the Philippines' first track and field Olympic medal in 85 years.
Duplantis is the only man to have gone over six metres this year, but there are four through who have reached that milestone outdoors at some stage in their careers.
Kendricks would have added to that tally, his absence opening up a very late call of duty for Matt Ludwig, who placed fourth in the US Olympic trials.
Ludwig missed the cut for the final, with a best of 5.50m -- perhaps understandable given that qualification came just 20 hours after he was informed a spot was free.
"It's been fast-moving," he said of a whirlwind day. "There have been mixed emotions... amid drop-of-the-hat stress, logistics.
"I didn't have a uniform before leaving for the stadium this morning.
"I woke up at 4a.m. and made some phone calls to land a uniform... it ended up being odds and ends at times."
Meanwhile, twenty one new COVID-19 cases related to the Olympics were reported by the organisers on Saturday, none of them athletes, amid surging infections in the host city.
Out of the total new cases, 14 were contractors and seven Games-linked officials.
Sixteen are residents of Japan and five from overseas.
None of them were staying in the Olympic village, the organising committee said.
The cumulative COVID-19 cases related to the Games now stand at 241.
As of Thursday, 40,558 people from overseas had arrived in Japan to take part in the Games, the organisers said.
On Friday, the organisers had announced 27 new COVID-19 cases linked with the Olympics, including three athletes, the highest daily count so far.
The three athletes included US pole vaulter Sam Kendricks, a two-time world champion, who on Thursday pulled out of the Games after testing positive for the virus.
Friday's figure in Games-related cases came a day after Tokyo reported over 3,000 new infections for the fourth straight day, and the nationwide single-day count topped 10,000 for the first time.
The organisers and the International Olympic Committee have insisted that the showpiece is not behind the record upswing in the host city.
Authorities are alarmed by the surging cases in the Japanese capital which is in a state of emergency.
The organising committee has said that a person involved in the Games has been stripped of his accreditation for breaking the COVID-19 protocols.
As per Kyodo News, the participant left the athletes' village to go sightseeing. This is the first time that a participant of the Olympics has been stripped off accreditation since the Games began July 23.
"No one must leave the athletes' village for the purpose of sightseeing," organising committee spokesman Masanori Takaya said.
The Tokyo Olympics organising committee on Saturday confirmed 21 more COVID-19 cases related to the Games. None of them are athletes. The 21 new infections have taken the total Games-related infections to 241.
Of the daily total, 14 were contractors and seven games-linked officials, confirmed the Tokyo Olympics organising committee.
The figures of the committee do not include those announced by central and local governments in Japan.
As of Thursday (July 29), 40,558 people from overseas had arrived in Japan to take part in the Tokyo Olympics.