08:58
Johanna Konta has opened up about her torrid, Covid-19-affected summer, during which she was withdrawn from Wimbledon on the eve of the tournament as a close contact of an infected team member. The British No 1 then contracted the virus herself, ruling her out of the Olympics.
Although she watched the Tokyo Games, Konta says that she could not bring herself to watch Wimbledon while sitting at home in quarantine, and that she had to “make peace with” the frustration of not being able to compete.
“It was a combination of feeling quite ill so I was sleeping or just existing for a few days. And then I didn’t really want to watch that. There was also a period there where I had to work through my own feelings of injustice at all of it, like: ‘Why now?’ sort of feeling. I needed a bit of space and a bit of licking my wounds,” she said.
08:16
Principals of schools in Australia’s Covid-19 hotspot local government areas have warned the decision to proceed with delayed face-to-face exams, with no certainty their schools will be able to open, could further entrench inequality in western and south-west Sydney communities.
The decision to postpone the High School Certificate (HSC) until 9 November in order to proceed with face-to-face exams in NSW has divided students, teachers and schools.
The concern is particularly acute in the 12 local government areas of concern, where lockdowns have gone on for longer, while some families have had the added strain of Covid-19 within their family or lockdowns at their schools.
The principal of Georges River Grammar, Raquel Charet, said it was particularly devastating for her students who were in one of the areas with high case numbers.
“I am worried that we will string them along for another couple of months and then they still won’t be able to do their exams,” she said.
“There is already a sense of being left behind in our LGAs. No one is giving clear advice and it is highly unlikely, given the level of case numbers now, that we will be able to go ahead with the HSC,” she said.
