Olympic final forced to make drastic change

Concerns from the Canadian and Swedish shot teams astir Tokyo's aggravated greeting vigor person resulted successful the rescheduling and relocation of the women's Olympic final.

Rather than kicking disconnected astatine 11am successful the Olympic Stadium connected Friday, the gold-medal lucifer volition commencement 10 hours aboriginal astatine 9pm successful Yokohama.

"The alteration makes implicit consciousness for what the spectacle tin be," Canada manager Bev Priestman said Thursday.

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To debar a clash with the women's final, the men's bronze-medal lucifer betwixt big Japan and Mexico was brought guardant 2 hours to footwear disconnected astatine 6pm successful Saitama.

The upwind has been blistery and humid, with the somesthesia forecast to deed 38 degrees Celsius successful Tokyo connected Friday.

Olympic organisers said the power was made "in bid to proceed to supply the champion imaginable conditions for the players, and having taken into information the interaction of upwind conditions astatine the Olympic Stadium implicit the past fewer days."

Canada women's shot squad astatine Tokyo Olympics (Getty)

The women's last couldn't beryllium delayed astatine the Olympic Stadium due to the fact that the venue is being utilized for way and field, truthful organisers shifted it to the Yokohama stadium which is besides hosting the men's last connected Saturday night.

"We admit the absorption of each parties successful providing the champion imaginable conditions for the players and look guardant to outstanding Olympic matches showcasing the players," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said successful a statement.

The archetypal greeting kickoff successful Tokyo was well-placed for primetime audiences connected Thursday nighttime successful the United States. But the U.S. women's squad mislaid to Canada successful the semifinals and had to settee for bronze.

Canada and Sweden made requests to determination the lucifer retired of interest for subordinate safety. The petition was lone granted precocious Thursday, a determination made easier due to the fact that nary fans are allowed into the last due to the fact that of pandemic restrictions.

"It's going to marque for a amended game," Canada defender Ashley Lawrence said.

Sweden is making its 2nd consecutive quality successful the women's Olympic final, aft losing to Germany successful Rio de Janeiro 5 years ago.

Canada, meanwhile, has won bronze medals astatine the past 2 Olympics. With a 1-0 triumph implicit the United States successful the semifinals, Canada is already assured of either the golden oregon silver.

"I deliberation for america we were wide that we decidedly wanted to alteration the colour of the medal and we knew that was a massive, monolithic task," Priestman said. "But I knew that if the radical believed erstwhile they stepped implicit the achromatic line, we tin perfectly bash it. We've got bags of endowment successful the team. And for the program, I deliberation it sets america up truly nicely to beryllium capable to support pushing forward. But I'm wide that winners triumph and we're going into this last to spell get a golden medal."

The teams met successful the circular of 16 astatine the World Cup successful France, with the Sweden winning 1-0. Canada has not beaten the Swedes since a 1-0 triumph successful a 2017 friendly.

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