Rio de Janeiro, April 7 (IANS) The city will stage 12 test events in the next two months as preparations for the first Olympic Games in South America move into their final stage.
April is the busiest month of the two-year test event calendar with eight competitions across 10 disciplines, organisers said on Wednesday, reports Xinhua.
Barra Olympic Park, the main venue cluster, will host seven events while another two locations will be tested for the first time, according to Rio2016.com. The program begins with weightlifting at Carioca Arena from April 7-10 and will be followed by shooting on April 14-25. The Olympic Aquatics stadium will be home to the swimming test event from April 15-20 while gymnastics will take place at Rio Olympic Arena on April 16-22.
Other events scheduled for April are as the following: Paralympic swimming (April 22-24), fencing (April 23-27), water polo (April 25-29) and Handball (April 29-May 1). May 4-5 will mark the last pre-Games event at Barra Olympic Park when Future arena stages goalball. The Olympic stadium will be home to the final three test events — athletics (May 14-16), Paralympic athletics (May 18-21) and football (May 22).
The Rio Olympics will be held from August 5-21 and the Paralympics from September 7-18.
Russia will be represented at Rio Olympics: Official
Moscow, April 7 (IANS) Russia will certainly be represented at the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympics, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Alexander Zhukov has said.
“No doubt, our team will be represented. We hope that our athletes will perform successfully at the Olympics in Rio,” Zhukov said on Wednesday, reports Tass.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is actively working with Russia’s federation and a new committee has been set up that cooperates with the IAAF, he said.
“Most likely, the IAAF council will be convened in June and the final decision will be made on restoring our federation. The possibility of participation of our athletes in Rio will depend on this,” Zhukov said.
“I think that the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) and the newly created committee actively work with the international federation and the demands that were made are being met. I think that these working contacts should produce a positive result,” he added.
Russin sports was in the centre of doping-related scandals since the fall of 2014. Following a series of high-profile doping scandals involving the ARAF last year, the IAAF suspended the Russian federation’s membership in the global governing body of athletics and put forward six criteria, which the ARAF must implement to restore its membership.
Experts say it is entirely possible that Russian national athletics teams will be suspended from the Rio Olympics this year following the findings of the Independent Commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Last month, Russian sports was hit by a new case in a chain of doping-related scandals after some of the country’s athletes tested positive for banned substance Meldonium.