Postponed Tokyo Olympics to follow an original schedule, all venues secured

LAUSANNE: The Tokyo Olympics will follow the same competition schedule that was decided initially for its original schedule before it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, organisers said on Thursday at the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) first ever virtual session that all 42 venues that were originally earmarked for the 2020 Olympics have been secured.

Tokyo 2020 chief executive Toshiro Muto also said a three-party council -- involving the organising committee, the Japanese government and the Tokyo metropolitan government -- would be established to look at coronavirus countermeasures at the Games.

The first event of the Tokyo Olympics would thus be softball, two days before the opening ceremony on July 23. Preliminary football matches will start on the same day, with rowing preliminary events and archery ranking rounds to be held on July 23 itself.

The first medal event -- the women's shooting 10m air rifle—will start at 8.30am local time on July 24. Medal events in six more sports -- archery, cycling (road race), fencing, judo, taekwondo and weightlifting -- will also be held, with medals being awarded in a total of 11 events that day.

The schedule includes a "Super Saturday" -- the penultimate day of competition which is set to include 34 event finals.

Originally scheduled to be held from July 24 to August 9, 2020, the Tokyo Olympics became the first ever to be postponed when the IOC and the organisers made the announcement on March 24. IANS

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