The International Olympic Committee is "fully committed" to holding the Tokyo Olympics on schedule despite the coronavirus outbreak, IOC president Thomas Bach told Japanese media in a conference call on Thursday.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks as the country battles to stem coronavirus contagion amid mounting concerns the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could be cancelled. Abe's call came after a Tokyo baseball team said it would play games in an empty stadium this weekend, while two businesses in central Tokyo reported confirmed cases of infection a day after the government urged companies to recommend staff consider working from home.
Tokyo marathon which last year saw close to 38,000 amateur participants, was scaled back to just a few hundred professional athletes, with the public strongly discouraged from lining the route. In past years the event attracted more than 1 million roadside spectators.
Japan's Olympic delay has upended years of careful planning by organisers and spawned costly headaches for small businesses, hotels and even pro baseball teams, compounding a $12 billion price tag. New dates have yet to be set, leaving sponsors and businesses uncertain and scrambling.
Rediff.com recaptures these and other exciting sporting moments from the week gone by....
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances