Skip to main content

Governor Koike Expresses Hope that Tokyo Olympic Marathon Will Move Back to Tokyo in Event of Spring Olympics


On Mar. 27 Governor Yuriko Koike, 67, spoke to the media at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government offices and on a morning news program about the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. "This is heavily premised on the assumption that the novel coronavirus will be under containment. The Olympics were postponed due to the coronavirus problem to begin with, and naturally, a decision should be made only after solving it," she said, emphasizing the expectation that the virus situation will be resolved.

Should the Olympics be rescheduled for spring, 2021 or another time outside the peak summer heat, the Governor also expressed her hope that the marathons and race walks would be staged in Tokyo as originally planned, setting the stage to reignite the issue of the events' forced relocation by the IOC to Sapporo last fall. "The citizens of Tokyo would like these to be in Tokyo," she said.

After a number of athletes dropped out of the marathons and race walks in heat and humidity at last fall's Doha World Championships the IOC made a snap decision to move those events from Tokyo to Sapporo at the Olympics. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government was not consulted beforehand, and Governor Koike was vehemently opposed to the decision. After four-party talks between the IOC, the Organizing Committee, the Metropolitan Government and the National Government, Koike ended by saying, "My belief that Tokyo remains the best option remains unchanged. The city of Tokyo cannot agree with this decision, but it is our decision not to prevent the group with the final decision-making authority, the IOC, from making it. This is a decision made without consent."

But immediately after the announcement of the Olympics' postponement, Organizing Committee head Yoshiro Mori had indicated that the events would not be moved, saying, "The overall framework will not change. I do not think we should alter anything." A JAAF official also commented, "They're fine in Sapporo. Changing things again will only cause more confusion." Even with Governor Koike making a proposal, it's bound to be a difficult road ahead for the events to move.

source article:
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20200328-00000016-dal-spo
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
53 comments
Read more