Japan’s Olympic minister says the Tokyo 2020 Games could be postponed from the summer until later in the year amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n
In a response to a question in Japan’s parliament, Seiko Hashimoto said Tokyo’s contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “calls for the Games to be held within 2020”.<\/p>\n
She added that “could be interpreted as allowing a postponement”.<\/p>\n
The Games are due to be held from 24 July to 9 August.<\/p>\n
“We are doing all we can to ensure that the Games go ahead as planned,” Hashimoto added.<\/p>\n
Under the hosting agreement the right to cancel the Games remains with the IOC.<\/p>\n
IOC president Thomas Bach says his organisation remains “very confident with regard the success” of the Games in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
“I would like to encourage all the athletes to continue their preparations with great confidence and full steam,” added the German.<\/p>\n
A number of high-profile sporting events have already been cancelled or postponed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, including the\u00a0World Athletics Indoor Athletics Championships\u00a0and the Chinese Grand Prix,\u00a0which was scheduled for 19 April.<\/p>\n
Coronavirus, which originated in China, has spread to more than 60 countries and claimed more than 3,000 lives so far.<\/p>\n
The IOC executive board met in Lausanne, Switzerland on Tuesday and in a statement “expressed its full commitment to the success of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 taking place from 24 July to 9 August”.<\/p>\n
It said a “joint task force” was started in mid-February, involving the IOC, Tokyo 2020 organisers, the host city of Tokyo, the government of Japan and the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n
The executive board added that it “appreciates and supports the measures being taken, which constitute an important part of Tokyo’s plans to host safe and secure Games”.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to support the athletes and their NOCs with regular updates of information, which we will provide,” Bach added.<\/p>\n
Source- BBC<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Japan’s Olympic minister says the Tokyo 2020 Games could be postponed from the summer until later in the year amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak. In a response to a question in Japan’s parliament, Seiko Hashimoto said Tokyo’s contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “calls for the Games to be held within 2020”. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090,2],"tags":[3086,369,3198],"class_list":["post-37057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-featured","tag-coronavirus","tag-health","tag-tokyo"],"yoast_head":"\n