Olympian Natalie Powell has arrived in Japan ahead of the Tokyo Olympics which kick off tomorrow.

The champion judoka left the UK on Tuesday evening, July 20, meaning she would have arrived in Tokyo on yesterday - Wednesday, July 21.

Her second set of Olympics, Natalie will be taking to the mat in a week - on Thursday, July 29 - as part of Team Great Britain’s judo squad.

Natalie, from Beulah, is one of six judoka on Team GB’s judo team who will compete at the 2021 Olympics which were postponed from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before leaving the UK, the thrilled 30-year-old told The Brecon & Radnor Express: “I am really excited, but also a little apprehensive because of all the stuff with Covid-19.

“It’s really nerve-racking. I do a test every day and they’re always negative, but I’m really careful about where I go and who I am near because the idea of getting a positive Covid test before one of the biggest moments of your life.”

Natalie, who placed seventh in the 2016 Rio Olympics, said she is confident in the measures in place in Tokyo and for the athletes and that a good job will be done to keep everybody safe.

The family of the double-Olympian have donned the house with flags and banners in support of the judoka.

Proud mum Val Powell said the excitement and nerves in the Powell household are “off the charts” as they wait for Natalie to take to the mat next Thursday.

Val said: “The excitement and nerves are off the scale. It’s been such a difficult 18 months with everything that’s gone on and preparing for the games.

“She has not been able to compete at much as she wanted to, and there’s still a risk that it may not go ahead again before her getting to the mat”.

The games, which are set to take place in Tokyo as well as other parts of Japan for just over two weeks from Friday, July 23, could still be called off by the International Olympic Committee if the risk from Covid-19 is deemed to be too high.

So far, the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, has urged the Japanese public to welcome the Olympics and promised they will be “safe and secure” and that the games would be the most restrictive sporting even in the world to limit any potential spread of infection.

Val said that Natalie has been very careful to social distance so that she doesn’t contract the virus before the games.

Competing alongside Natalie, who is in the -78kg category, is Commonwealth Games champion Sarah Adlington, fellow double-Olympian Gemma Howell, Antalya Grand Slam gold medal winner Lucy Renshall, Tel Aviv gold medalist and Tbsilsi Grand Slam silver medalist Chelsie Giles and Triple-Olympian Ashley McKenzie.

Despite her disappointment with finishing in seventh place at the 2016 Olympics, the judoka has gone from strength to strength in the recent years.

The first Welsh judoka to compete at the Olympics in 2016 in Rio, Natalie became the first female British judoka to be ranked at World Number One in 2017 after she won a gold medal at the Abu Dhabi Judo Grand Slam in 2017.

Natalie can be seen on both BBC Sport and Eurosport on July 29 between 11am and 7.40pm local time - approximately 3am UK time.

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