The women’s ice hockey match between the ROC and Canada was delayed by an hour on Monday as the ROC’s Covid-19 test results had not arrived on time, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation said in a statement on Monday.
The puck was set to drop on the preliminary match at 12:10 p.m. local time but, according to ROC player Maria Batalova, the match was delayed after Canada refused to play until all the test results had arrived.
“We take the tests in the mornings and in the evenings, and the Canadian team wanted to wait for our morning test results and their own as well,” Batalova told the official Beijing 2022 website.
“At the beginning, there was an agreement that we will come out to play, and then they decided to wait for the test results.”
The federation said in its statement that both teams got tested before 9 a.m. local time on Monday, but the results did not come through in time.
“Russia’s results from this morning weren’t back in yet,” said Canada forward Natalie Spooner.
“I know in the past few days they’ve had a few positives and we just wanted to make sure their results came back and we were safe to play.”
The ROC women’s ice hockey team was subjected to three days in quarantine early last week after several players tested positive for Covid-19. The team has since been cleared to compete at the Games.
According to the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, both sets of players were later instructed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that they could play the match wearing face masks.
The two teams abided by the regulation until the third period when the IIHF allowed the players to play with their masks off.
Team ROC played out the remainder of the game without masks, while the Canadian team maintained wearing personal protective equipment.
Canada eventually won the match 6-1, securing their second win in the Beijing Olympics’ preliminary round after Saturday’s victory against Finland.