So far, Tahli Gill and her playing partner, Dean Hewitt, have not made too much of a splash at the Olympic curling tournament.

The Australians, who qualified for the Olympics for the first time, had lost all seven of their previous matches in the mixed doubles competition.

But before the final games against Switzerland and Canada this Sunday, they were suddenly the focus of attention - albeit highly involuntarily and not for sporting reasons.

Achim Dreis

sports editor.

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The 22-year-old Tahli Gill had tested positive for Corona, as the first athlete during an ongoing competition at these Olympic Games.

And should therefore immediately leave the tournament, the city and the country.

The Australian NOK had already tried to get the duo from Brisbane home as quickly as possible.

But after hours of hanging around, the Chinese health authorities surprisingly decided differently on Sunday.

The young curler was allowed to leave the quarantine hotel again and even compete against the Swiss Jenny Perret and Martin Rios.

After a previous Covid illness, Gill's CT value was below the limit of 35 applicable to the games before the trip to Beijing. She then had to compete in the entire tournament under strict rules as she was previously ill. Huang Chun, responsible for pandemic prevention in the organizing committee, always emphasized: "We have to be very vigilant when it comes to the control measures in the closed circuit so that clusters do not occur." It was initially unclear why the Australians were allowed to continue playing. The organizers reported a total of ten new corona cases on Sunday, including six athletes or team members. The total is currently 363.

Tahli Gill was surprisingly unfazed by the chaos.

Together with Dean Hewitt, she managed to take a 3-0 lead against the favored Swiss in the first two ends and didn't let a temporary 3-6 deficit upset her.

In the end, the Australians won the game 9:6 and celebrated their first point of the tournament.

Of course, this respectable success did not change anything in the last place in the tableau.