Skip to main content

IOC's Coates Insists Sapporo 2020 Men's Marathon Be Held on Last Day of Olympics

Speaking about the relocation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics road events to Sapporo at a press conference in Sydney on Nov. 13, IOC coordination committee chairperson John Coates reiterated the IOC's insistence that the men's marathon be staged on the final day of the Olympics, Aug. 9, saying, "It is to be held on the last day of the Olympics, and the athletes must be put on a plane and returned (to Tokyo) in time for the closing ceremonies."

In response to the IOC's edict that the premier event of the Olympics, the men's marathon, be moved out of Tokyo to Sapporo, 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee head Yoshiro Mori had indicated that the date of the men's marathon would be changed in order to overcome the logistical impossibilities created by the move to Sapporo. The IOC responded by saying the marathon was still to be held on the 9th. "No final decision has yet been made, but the organizers should be prepared to hold it on the same day on which it is currently scheduled," Coates stressed. He did, however, admit that the IOC was open to reason, saying, "This is not absolutely set in stone."

With regard to the organizing committee's consideration of holding the marathon on a circuit course he said, "I've heard absolutely nothing about it," saying that it was his understanding that the course would be essentially the same as that of the Hokkaido Marathon. Coates is the head of the Australian Olympic Committee.

source article:
https://newstf.x-day.tokyo/?p=17325
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

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...