English clubs said that they "will allow their players to compete at next summer's Olympic Games as part of Great Britain's Sevens team." Both the Aviva Premiership's governing body and the clubs themselves "made it clear that they will not block British players, such as Wasps' winger Christian Wade, from representing Great Britain in Rio de Janeiro." A club statement said, "Wasps have always been, and remain, incredibly supportive of our players representing their respective countries, the highest honour any player could achieve" (SKY SPORTS, 8/26). ... The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department "is planning an unprecedented scale of security for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games, with the help of police officers from across Japan." At the same time, the Tokyo police "aim to make better use of female officers and private-sector technologies to take a light-touch approach to security that does not spoil the festive atmosphere of the quadrennial sports event." A senior MPD official said, "We will prepare to be on the highest possible alert, working in collaboration with overseas intelligence agencies. But we don’t want to provide the kind of heavy-handed security by gun-carrying personnel that was seen at the 2012 London Olympics and 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi" (JIJI, 8/27). ... Accompanying the sailing test event from last week (Aug. 15-22), "a task force with eco-boats collected 28 tons of floating
rubbish in Guanabara Bay in an effort to clean the waters for the
competition." The task force "is part of Rio’s state government new plan
to clean floating waste in the bay." Around 3.5 tons of floating rubbish was removed from Guanabara Bay’s waters on average on every day of the sailing competition. Ten eco-boats were used, "as well as satellite images
guiding the boats and ecobarriers to trap the floating waste" (RIO TIMES, 8/27).
