- Follow the latest news and score from Yokohama Stadium
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The Guardian’s Tom Dart is actually on the scene:
This bowl-shaped 35,000-capacity venue about a 45-minute drive from downtown Tokyo, with its steep, elegantly curving blue stands, is sadly empty – but no doubt there’ll be a big home audience watching on television as Japan look to retain their Olympic title. Which they’ve held for 13 years, given that Olympic softball was last seen in Beijing. And with Paris set to skip the sport, the winners tonight will be reigning champions for at least seven years, given that, as you’d expect, baseball and softball are expected to return in LA in 2028.
The good news is that it stopped raining a few hours back, so while the field may be a little slick, we should be set to complete the game without any weather delays, though it’s rather humid and hot – anticipated to be 28C/82F at first pitch.
Olympics Softball Gold Medal Game
Welcome to the 2021 Olympics Gold Medal Softball Game between the U.S. and Japan. This is my first opportunity to liveblog Olympics softball because it, alongside baseball, was removed from the program after 2008. For the uninitiated, softball is a variation on regular baseball (a.k.a. hardball) where the ball is released by a pitcher in an underhand motion rather than overhand and it lasts seven innings rather than nine innings and is generally faster-paced in all other regards. It’s also played on a different sized field, although, controversially, the Tokyo Olympics didn’t bother to create an actual softball field so this game is being played on a modified hardball field.
Hunter will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s news of another epic Olympic rivalry: Katie Ledecky v Ariarne Titmus:
After losing to Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in the women’s 400m freestyle, American Katie Ledecky departed the press conference tent at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre with a message: “See you in a few hours.” The five-time Olympic gold medallist was speaking to the gathered media, but she might as well have been talking to Titmus. This isn’t over yet.
Related: Round one to Ariarne Titmus but duel in the pool with Katie Ledecky continues | Kieran Pender
