Skip to main content

'Tokyo 2020 Marathon and Race Walks Moved to Sapporo Because of Fears Over Heat'

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1086013/olympic-marathon-moved-to-sapporo

Comments

Andrew Armiger said…
Nice compromise here, yet what a continual circus.
Simon Sumida said…

I have just seen the news in The Guardian and I thought... OK Brett should have written something about it!

I think it is, finally, a sensible decision by the organisation, but it seems a mess to decide it now. What was the point of doing the Trials in the original course, then? And if volunteers and spectators have already arranged trips and accommodation mainly or even just to see the marathon? This is outrageous!!!

And there many other outdoor endurance events which will be dangerous because of heat and humidity. Are they going to move all of them to Sapporo? Ridiculous...
Unknown said…
finally a decision that make sense, I do not want to see the same images of distress as in Doha.
Anonymous said…
In checking this summer's temperatures for Tokyo and Sapporo during the end of July and beginning of August, there is not much difference only a couple of degrees cooler. I wonder if it is worth moving the Marathon to Sapporo for only a couple of degrees....Maybe the humidity is less and would make it more comfortable in Sapporo.
Anyway, neither Tokyo or Sapporo reaches the over 40C heat and the high humidity that the runners faced in Doha.

I was planning to visit Tokyo during the summer Olympics because even though I cannot afford tickets to other events I thought I could participate in cheering on the athletes in the marathon. With the marathon moving to Sapporo, I have cancelled my trip to Japan.
Franckie said…
Japanese athletes train for "Tokyo 2020" and not for "Hokkaido 2020"
Hokkaido 2020 is better for doped athletes
because the harsh climatic conditions are more favorable for athletes "clean"

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...