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JAAF Hopes for Mid-September Date, Tokyo Site for Road Events at 2025 World Championships

On July 14 World Athletics announced that the 2025 World Championships in Athletics will be held in Tokyo at the National Stadium used for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will be Tokyo's 2nd time to host the World Championships, 34 years after the last time in 1991. It will also be Japan's 3rd time following the 2007 Osaka World Championships, making it the first country to host the World Championships three time.

JAAF director Mitsugi Ogata commented, "It's a great honor, but with it comes great responsibility." World Athletics hopes to have the Championships take place in late August, but in view of the hot conditions at the Tokyo Olympics and its road events having been moved to Sapporo, he said, "we are thinking in terms of mid-September. In terms of both athlete safety and the potential for top-level performances, from the beginning we have to face the fact that mid-September is the ideal timing in Japan.  We also very strongly want to have the marathons and race walks in Tokyo so that large numbers of people can come out to cheer." The JAAF will push its position on the issues in discussion and negotiation with World Athletics.

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translated by Brett Larner

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