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RIO DE JANEIRO -- So the plumbing and electricity in the athletes village took several days to fix. Who cares?But no Pokemon Go? Thats an outrage!If there were ever a more First World problem for the Zika-plagued, water-polluted Rio Olympics, its Brazils lack of access to the hit mobile game, which has united players the world over.Since debuting to wild adulation in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand this month, the game from Google spinoff Niantic Inc. has spread like wildfire, launching in more than 30 countries or territories -- but not Brazil.For athletes and other visitors caught up in the wave, not having access is just one more knock against an Olympics that officials are racing to get ready. The opening ceremony takes place next Friday.I wish I could run around in the (athletes) village catching Pokemon, New Zealand soccer player Anna Green said Friday. I just cant get it on the phone. Its fine, but it would have been something fun to do.What will she do instead? Train, she replied.Niantic didnt reply to a request for comment on when the game might be released in Brazil. And though social media rumors point to a Sunday release for the game, similar rumors in Japan resulted in heightened expectations and the sense of delay before its debut there last week.This week, British canoer Joe Clarke tweeted -- with a broken-hearted sad face -- a screenshot of his player on a deserted map near the rugby, equestrian and modern pentathlon venues in Rios Deodoro neighborhood. The map was devoid of PokeStops -- fictional supply caches linked to real-world landmarks. No Pokemon monsters to catch either: There was nary a Starmie nor a Clefairy to be found.Sorry guys no (hash)pokemon in the Olympic Village, tweeted French canoer Matthieu Peche, followed by three crying-face emoji. Getting equal billing in his Twitter stream was a snapshot of a letter of encouragement from French President Francois Hollande.Players with the app already downloaded elsewhere appear to be able to see a digital map of their surroundings when they visit Rio. But without PokeStops or Pokemon, the game isnt much fun. It would be like getting on a football field -- soccer to Americans -- but not having a ball to kick or goals to defend.Many competitors in the athletes village took it in stride, though. Canadian field hockey player Matthew Sarmento said it would give him more time to meet other athletes. But he would have welcomed Pokemon during downtime in competition, adding that sometimes its good to take your mind off the important things and let yourself chill.Athletes might not get Pokemon, but theyll have access to 450,000 condoms, or three times as many as the London Olympics. Of those, 100,000 are female condoms. Officials deny that its a response to the Zika virus, which has been linked to miscarriages and birth defects in babies born to women who have been infected.In Pokemon countries like the U.S., PokeStops are being used to attract living, breathing customers. In San Francisco, for example, dozens of bars, restaurants and coffee shops have set up lures that attract rare Pokemon, along with potential new patrons looking to catch them.Thats presumably one reason why Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes -- plagued by a host of bad news from player robberies to faulty plumbing -- urged Niantic investor Nintendo to release the game in Brazil.Everybody is coming here. You should also come! Paes wrote in Portuguese on his Facebook page , adding the hashtag (hash)PokemonGoNoBrasil -- Pokemon Go in Brazil.His post generated responses such as this: The aquatic Pokemon died with superbugs.Paes didnt respond to requests for interviews.One video circulating virally, with more than 3.5 million views, shows one fan identifying himself as Joel Vieira questioning how Brazil can host the Olympics but not Pokemon.I cant play! I am not allowed to know how it really feels to see the little animals on my cell phone, he said on the video . Because we dont have it in Brazil, yet. But we are having the Olympics.The Olympics kick off next Friday. Will Pikachu be there to witness it? The world is watching with baited Poke-breath.---Business Writer Ryan Nakashima reported from Menlo Park, California. AP writer Adriana Gomez Licon in Rio de Janeiro also contributed to this story. Naby Keita Liverpool Jersey . 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According the Toronto Star, a knee injury will keep Sundin out of the lineup, which includes former teammates Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker, Tie Domi and Curtis Joseph. NEW YORK -- To a certain segment of the population, Scott Van Pelt is a more popular late-night television star than Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.That segment -- young men aged 18-to-34 -- may be small, but its an elusive one for television advertisers and vital to Van Pelts bosses at ESPN. Hes one year into an experiment to broaden the appeal of SportsCenter at the midnight hour.While Van Pelt doesnt yuk it up with monologue jokes, the midnight SportsCenter he hosts incorporates elements from the late-night comedy shows, including a greater emphasis on interviews and bite-sized pieces of material that can live online independent of the television show.ESPN was looking to tailor a SportsCenter edition to a particular personality and zeroed in on Van Pelt, a striking-looking, six-foot-six-inch bald man who had developed a following in recent years on ESPN Radio, said Rob King, senior vice president for SportsCenter and news. Besides radio, Van Pelt had primarily been a golf reporter for ESPN.I resisted it for quite a while simply because I liked the radio world I was in, Van Pelt said. I just never thought theyd give me the latitude to be myself. I never believed that they would just give me the easel and say, `Paint what you want.ESPN hates it when people suggest that SportsCenter is a franchise going the way of the rotary phone. But it would be naive to ignore that sports fans can now easily retrieve scores and highlights online through their devices, and need not depend on a television producer to decide when and how much they can see their favorite team.Van Pelts show uses highlights sparingly and in different fashions, like an author who decides not to tell a story chronologically. Hell do a segment called Filth, for example, showing one nights examples of stellar pitching performances, or splice some memorable home runs together from across Major League baseball.Showing his radio roots, he frequently debriefs ESPN correspondents on whats going on in the sports they cover. With baseball reporter Tim Kurkjian, the routine often includes the two Marryland natives using exaggerated Baltimore accents.ddddddddddddVan Pelts nightly One Big Thing commentary, despite the dull title, is frequently the most-shared segment of his show online; his most popular was when he lamented that entertainment media looked past Lamar Odoms basketball accomplishments to refer to him as a reality TV star. The packaging follows a trend late-night hosts like James Corden and his Carpool Karaoke find vital, where they create a presence for themselves outside of a time slot when many viewers are asleep.Timbaland, who remixed the SportsCenter theme specifically for Van Pelts show, adds a hipness factor.His show has attracted attention for candidly talking about sports bettors, and hell show how a seemingly meaningless play at the end of a game already decided can cause heartbreak or exhilaration because of its relation to the point spread.People bet, Van Pelt said. Its pretty simple. I choose to handle it like an adult.Many sportscasters ignore that element, choosing to ignore money changing hands illicitly, perhaps not to offend the bosses of the sports involved.He does it in a way that celebrates the lunacy of sports fandom and the ongoing sort of calamity of thinking you can actually beat the system, King said. Its done with humor. Its done with love.The show has taken some heat from traditionalists who want a SportsCenter that will simply outline the day in sports, even though other editions follow that template. If we do the show right, we do both, King said. You get what happened, and Scotts unique sense of why it mattered.Van Pelt, 46, admits that hes sensitive to the criticism, and initially argued for more highlights.Because weve done alright, it validates the approach of where we need to be in 2016 in the world we occupy, he said. I think were landing more often than not in the right place.---Follow David Bauder at twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder ' ' '