By Steve Keating
BEIJING (Reuters) -The Czech Republic’s David Krejci, one of the biggest names in the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament, tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Beijing on Thursday.
Krejci, who logged 1,118 regular season and playoff games in the National Hockey League and won a Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins before returning to play in the Czech Extraliga this season, was isolating in his room in the athletes village while the team practised.
Two other members of the Czech squad, forward Tomas Hyka and goaltender Simon Hrubec, also produced positive tests.
“He (Krejci) was positive when coming over to the Olympic village, but the same thing happened to Hyka the first day, so I strongly believe that tomorrow his numbers are going to be all right and he’s going to join the practice,” said coach Filip Pesan after putting his men through a brisk training session.
“But today his numbers were not so good, so we just kept him safe. We kept him in the room and we’re going to re-test him tonight and re-test him tomorrow morning, and I strongly believe that he’s going to join the practice tomorrow.”
Rated strong medal contenders, the Czechs face off on Wednesday against Denmark.
A COVID-19 outbreak has also hit the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) women’s team with six members in isolation after producing positive tests.
The ROC practised on Thursday without the isolating players and are scheduled to play their Games opener on Friday against Switzerland.
“We aren’t in contact with anyone in the Olympic Village,” Russian head coach Evgeny Bobariko said. “Nobody goes anywhere.
“Everyone sits in their rooms, food is brought to them. We only leave our rooms to get tested. We are not allowed to use the elevator, everyone goes down using the stairs.”
The RIA news agency reported that the six Russian players in isolation are Angelina Goncharenko, Olga Sosina, Lyudmila Belyakova, Ekaterina Nikolayeva, Diana Fakhrutdinova and Liana Ganeyeva.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Beijing, Editing by Ed Osmond and Ken Ferris)
