JAAF Says Large Portion of Hokkaido Marathon Course Unusable for Olympics for Security Reasons

Speaking on the subject of the course to be used for the 2020 Olympic marathon now that the IOC has decreed it be relocated to Sapporo, JAAF long distance and marathon director Tadasu Kawano gave his honest opinion at a JAAF press conference on Nov. 5. "I don't see any issue with using the Hokkaido Marathon course as a base, but I don't think we can use the Shinkawa-dori section due to security and other issues," he said. He went on to say that that portion of the course would likely be made up using a loop segment.

"I'm not in a position to say what might be good or bad about the course," Kawano said, but with regard to the 13 km straight out-and-back section of the Hokkaido Marathon course along Shingawa-dori he said, "The security and medical access issues are difficult problems. Preventing spectators from accessing the course would be difficult. The IAAF will probably find it unacceptable."

The organizing committee is examining changing the Shinkawa-dori section of the course to another location. At both the 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics the  marathon courses featured looped circuit courses.

source article:
https://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/article/361929
translated and edited by Brett Larner