Gulveer Singh clocked 28 minute 38.63 seconds to win the gold to claim the gold medal in the men's 10,000m race at the Asian Athletics Championships.
The postponed Olympic Games will now begin on July 23 next year and run until August 8, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said on Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to plan and prepare for them properly this year. The Games were postponed last week - the first such delay in the 124-year history of the modern Olympics. The move was a huge blow for Japan, which invested $13 billion in the run-up to the event and raised $3 billion from domestic sponsors.
Indian athletes, including the boxers and shooters, hit the ground running as they started their pre-Olympic training, hoping to live up to massive expectations in the pandemic-hit Games in Tokyo.
Chosen by schoolchildren across Japan and announced before a gymnasium of cheering pupils in Tokyo, the as yet unnamed blue character will be the mascot for the Olympics and the pink cherry blossom-inspired one for the Paralympics.
Tokyo 2020 organisers left the Olympic flame in the hands of Fukushima Prefecture on Wednesday where it will be on display in a lantern for the next month after the Games were postponed for a year due to the coronavirus outbreak. The handover took place at a subdued ceremony at the J-Village National Training Centre in Fukushima, which was originally set to be the starting point of the torch relay.
Scientists and medical experts are concerned about how things might look next summer, a year after the Tokyo Games were postponed.
The Tokyo Olympics next July will be a "uniquely risky" event, demanding flexibility from organisers amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly if a vaccine has not been rolled out by then, medical experts say. Japan and the International Olympic Committee made the unprecedented decision last month to delay the Games for a year, as the world battles the virus that has infected 2.3 million people and killed more than 150,000 globally. But questions persist whether the Games can go ahead 15 months from now, as a vaccine could still be at least a year away, according to the most optimistic estimates.
The head of the World Squash Federation (WSF) said he was devastated for the sport's millions of followers after squash was again overlooked for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities, the Tokyo Olympics ceremony was low-key, with fewer than 1,000 people in attendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on spectators to "be quiet around the venue."
Nothing is certain as Tokyo's postponed Olympics hit the 100-days-to-go mark on Wednesday
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.
'This also weighed on us, it weighed on me. But in order to arrive at this day today we had to give confidence, had to show a way out of this crisis'.
Japan's confirmed coronavirus infections rose above 1,000 as Olympics organisers dismissed speculation that the Tokyo Summer Games could be cancelled.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach says the Tokyo Games would have to be scrapped if the event cannot be held next year due to the COVID-19 crisis. In March, the IOC and Japanese government took the unprecedented decision to delay the Games, which had been due to start in July, for a year due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
While the debate over the political, financial and health implications of holding the Tokyo Olympics in July rages around the world, triple jump gold medal hopeful Will Claye believes a crucial voice is not always being heard - that of the athlete.
When the world's top athletes meet in Tokyo for the Olympics in July, they will be spending some of their downtime in a communal space built mostly out of reusable timber. Organisers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Wednesday unveiled the athletes village plaza, which was made from 40,000 pieces of timber donated by 63 Japanese municipal governments.
The spread of a new coronavirus could throw "cold water over the growing momentum of the 2020 Games," Tokyo Organising Committee CEO Toshiro Muto said. Japanese government officials including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have said the government would work hard to minimise any impact from the virus outbreak on the Games, which start on July 24.
The announcement came after a poll by NHK broadcaster showed a third of Japanese residents want the Tokyo Olympics to be scrapped amid fears that an influx of foreign visitors may cause a further spike in COVID-19 cases.
"To facilitate these adaptations, and reflecting the postponement of the Games, we are making the necessary modifications to the qualification system principles to include, for example, the relaxation of the maximum two-year period and amendments to the qualification deadlines."
The athlete, who has tested positive most recently was not staying at the Games village.
The European, American and final world qualifying boxing tournaments for the Tokyo Olympic Games were suspended on Monday due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the International Olympic Committee said. The IOC said the European qualifier in London, which was already under way and due to run to March 24, would end after Tuesday's evening session. It said it would provide details on the qualification process for the other regions at a later date.
On Wednesday the countdown had been replaced by the current date - "25-3" for March 25 in the days display - and the current time, after the International Olympic Committee decided to postpone the Games by one year.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday gave further unequivocal backing to this summer's Tokyo Olympics, urging athletes to prepare "full steam" despite the coronavirus threat. Multiple sports events around the world have been cancelled during the epidemic, which has killed more than 3,000 people in China and spread to more than 60 nations including Japan where infections are near 1,000 and 12 people have died.
Greek torchlighting organisers said the dress rehearsal the day before, which usually attracts crowds, will be held without spectators while accreditations have been trimmed to the bare minimum and receptions and lunches scrapped.
The IOC will hold discussions that will include an option of putting back the July 24 start date or even moving the Games by a year or more due to the global coronavirus outbreak, but said cancelling the Games would not solve problems or help anybody. They have raised several issues in the past week with the IOC, including athletes' inability to prepare due to restrictions caused by the virus and their overall safety.
The sports ministry cleared the final contingent that also features 140 support staff and officials, of which 72 "have been approved at cost to the Government" to meet the "requirements" of the travelling sportspersons.
The coronavirus has however infected increasing numbers of athletes and others involved with the Games, and authorities were on Friday trying to track down a Ugandan weightlifter who went missing from his training camp.
Tokyo has mostly delivered on that hope, despite some early teething problems.
The rearranged Tokyo Olympics are likely to be a pared-down version of recent editions of the four-yearly Games, Japanese Olympic Committee chairman Yasuhiro Yamashita said on Tuesday. Japan and the International Olympic Committee postponed the Tokyo Games until 2021 in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
'The IOC is fully committed to the successful and safe delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.'
The full name of the Russian Olympic Committee could not be used and team flags would bear the logo of the committee
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Thursday said all the Tokyo Games-bound athletes and officials have got their first COVID-19 vaccine and they will get their second doses before their departure from the country for the multi-sporting spectacle.
Coates also hit out at the suggestion that the IOC was ploughing ahead with the Games "at all costs" to fulfill lucrative contracts with broadcasters and sponsors.
A summary of major figures and facts at the Tokyo Games.
IOA also announced that Sindhu, India's only woman athlete to win back-to-back Olympic medals, will be the flag bearer of the Indian contingent during the opening ceremony on July 26, alongside ace table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal.
Soon after the new dates were announced, IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta said, "Indian Olympic Association along with the National Sports Federations welcome and support the new dates for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will be held from 23 July to 8 August, 2021."
Tokyo Olympics organisers added that they are working on more than 200 ideas to simplify and reduce costs for the rescheduled Games.
Tokyo Olympics organisers are focusing on their new Games start date in 2021, they stressed on Friday -- even if the coronavirus outbreak complicates preparations for the remade extravaganza. At his first remote news conference on Friday, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto emphasised that Games organisers are aiming towards the new start date of July 23, 2021, regardless of how long it takes to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
'Our task is to organise Olympic Games and not to cancel Olympic Games. This is why we are working day and night to organise safe Olympic Games.'
The Tokyo Olympics had originally been scheduled for 2020 but were postponed by a year because of the pandemic.
