Kuala Lumpur. South Sudan became the 206th member of the Olympic family on Friday after the International Olympic Committee approved its inclusion, despite ongoing fighting in the African country.

The country is now free to compete at next year’s Rio de Janeiro summer Olympics under its own flag and plans to send a team of four.

“I am delighted and exhilarated. This will promote reconciliation and national unity,” said South Sudan’s Olympic chief Wilson Kuoirot. “Being a member of the IOC will allow us to send a team to next year’s Olympics. At present we have four athletes, all training in Kenya.”

The unanimous recognition of the country’s Olympic Committee drew a loud round of applause from the IOC members with South Sudanese officials visibly moved and some in tears.

“Let me wish you a very bright future,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “We will stand by your side.”

“We look forward to welcoming you to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games of Rio de Janeiro [in 2016]. This will put your nation on the world map.”

Thousands have been killed and more than 2.2 million displaced since fighting broke out in December 2013 between President Salva Kiir’s government and rebels commanded by Riek Machar.

Both sides have been accused of human rights abuses and indiscriminate killings, which have often been carried out along ethnic lines, with Machar’s Nuers pitted against Kiir’s powerful Dinkas.

South Sudan’s marathon runner Guor Marial competed at the London 2012 Olympics but did so under the Olympic flag after refusing to run for Sudan and with South Sudan not yet an IOC member at the time.

He can make amends in Rio as he is part of the four-member team, Kuoirot said.

Reuters

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Kuala Lumpur. Efforts to improve the water quality for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics are ongoing, Games organizers said on Saturday, adding the welfare of the athletes was a top priority after reports of severe pollution off the shores of the Brazilian metropolis.

Privately commissioned tests of the water quality, where rowers, sailors and open water swimmers will be competing, revealed this week a high level of disease-causing viruses.

The waters along Rio’s Atlantic coast, including Guanabara Bay where sailing events will be held, have been polluted for years and successive governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on supposed clean-ups to little effect.

Biologists last year said rivers leading into the bay contained a superbacteria resistant to antibiotics that cure urinary, gastrointestinal and pulmonary infections.

“The bay is the most iconic part of the Rio 2016 legacy,” Games communications chief Mario Andrada told the International Olympics Committee in a progress presentation just over a year before the Games start on Aug. 5, 2016.

“The health and welfare of athletes is our principle priority after a successful test event last year. We will do more in 2015 and 2016.”

“New eco boats, a new monitoring system, new eco barriers, at every barrier a boat to collect the waste, pipelines to move sewage elsewhere.”

When Rio de Janeiro bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, the city trumpeted the clean-up and said it would cut the amount of raw sewage flowing into the bay by 80 percent. But it has since admitted it is unlikely to meet that target, something Mayor Eduardo Paes called a “lost opportunity” for the city.

Earlier this year, the Rio de Janeiro state government said the amount of sewage treated before reaching the bay had risen to 49 percent from 17 percent.

“The waters around the competition areas currently comply with national and international standards,” Andrada said. “We remain committed to be absolutely transparent with athletes about the state of the water before every day of competition.”

Reuters

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Munich. Bayern Munich will not only have to overturn a 3-0 Champions League semi-final first leg deficit against Barcelona on Tuesday but they will have to do it against a superb defense and in the midst of their biggest slump in years.

The injury-hit hosts face the monumental task of breaking down Barca’s mean defense, which has not leaked a goal in their last seven outings in all competitions, a club record.

During that run they have rattled in 25 goals, with their South American attacking trident of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez in scintillating form.

Saturday’s 2-0 win at home to Real Sociedad stretched their lead over second-placed Real Madrid at the top of La Liga to four points, leaving them on course for a fifth Spanish league title in seven years and a possible treble.

Barca coach Luis Enrique, in his first season in charge, has found the right mix of defensive solidity and attacking verve.

“We have a game plan and we execute it superbly,” the former Barca and Spain midfielder said.

“The idea, from the start, is to create problems for the opponent,” added the 45-year-old. “When many think it’s better to run back, we run forward.”

Five-times European champions Bayern, on the other hand, have lost their last four matches in all competitions since retaining their Bundesliga crown, including a 1-0 home league loss to Augsburg on Saturday.

Their losing run, which includes a German Cup semi-final exit on penalties to Borussia Dortmund, has put coach Pep Guardiola under pressure for the first time in his second season in charge.

The Spaniard, hired to repeat their 2013 treble-winning season, has so far failed to deliver on the European stage for Bayern and the challenge against former club Barcelona looks even tougher without several of his players.

David Alaba, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Holger Badstuber are all still out, forcing Guardiola to rethink his strategy against the club where he won the trophy in 2009 and 2011.

“If we only focus on scoring goals on Tuesday then we will lose like we did last year to Real [Madrid in the semis],” he said. “We have to remain calm, control our game and see what can come out of it.”

Few believe the Bavarians in their current form are any match for dazzling Barca, who scored three goals in 17 minutes in the first leg.

But Bayern did it against Porto when they beat them 6-1 after losing their quarter-final first leg 3-1 away.

“Nothing worked for us in the past few games,” said captain Philipp Lahm. “We cannot convert our chances at the moment. But the time has to come when we start doing that again.”

Reuters

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