Captain Kimura fans flames as Japan volleyball team qualify for Rio

Japan qualified for their fourth successive Rio Olympics in women’s volleyball yesterday after an inspired captain’s performance from Saori Kimura.
The Japanese were beaten 23-25, 27-25, 27-25, 21-25, 15-9 by Italy in the Tokyo qualifiers but clinched the two sets they required to book their ticket, helped in no small measure by Kimura’s 31 points. Her heroics ensured Japan joined Italy, the Netherlands and Asia rivals South Korea in this summer’s Games in Rio.
Japan, bronze medallists behind Brazil and the United States at the 2012 London Olympics, have posted four wins and two defeats to claim the fourth and final spot for Brazil. Antonella Del Core led Italy with 22 points. “Kimura was amazing,” Japan coach Masayoshi Manabe told reporters. “She was so hot it was like there were flames coming from her. We achieved our goal of getting to the Olympics so now the pressure’s off a little bit.”
Meanwhile, the Dutch thrashed Peru 25-16, 25-14, 25-17 to qualify for their third Olympics and first since the 1996 Atlanta Games.

World’s oldest Olympic champion Tarics dies at 102
The oldest living Olympic champion Sandor Tarics, who was a member of Hungary’s gold-medal winning waterpolo team at the 1936 Games, has died aged 102.
Tarics, who was born in 1913 in Budapest, passed away at his home in San Francisco, according to a statement by the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) yesterday. A keen mathematician from an early age and an engineer by profession, he left Hungary after the Communist Party takeover in 1948 and settled in San Francisco where he worked as a university professor.
He later achieved fame for his work in earthquake research, and in particular his design of earthquake-proof building technologies. A recipient of official honours in both the US and Hungary, he also served for a period as the UN’s earthquake adviser. After the death in 2011 of Italian cyclist Attilio Pavesi, who won two golds at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, Tarics became the oldest living Olympic champion.
Russia says financing extra doping tests for athletes
Russia is financing an additional testing programme for its track and field athletes who may compete in the Rio Olympics, a step to prove commitment to cleaning up the sport amid widespread doping allegations, the country’s sports ministry said.
Russia is at the heart of the biggest doping scandal in sport and its track and field athletes are suspended as a result of a probe into doping accusations, putting their participation in this year’s Olympics in doubt. The ministry said late on Friday that Russian athletes who may be competing in Rio would now be tested at least three times by the world athletics governing body IAAF, in addition to all the anti-doping tests they may have to undergo in the normal course of their preparations. All samples will be collected by foreign companies and analysed in laboratories accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), while planning of those tests will be carried out by UKAD, Britain’s anti-doping agency, the ministry said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia supports investigations into doping allegations, adding that he hoped the focus on his country was not politically-motivated.