Tokyo clock stops as costs keep mounting

TOKYO: Rescheduling the Tokyo Olympics will involve massive additional costs, organisers conceded as they convened a taskforce for the unprecedented task.

“One by one, we need to ensure the problems we face can be solved,” Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said at the first meeting of the taskforce. “Additional expenses are going to be quite massive. With regards to our revenues, we need to make a lot of effort there,” he added. Muto gave no estimates, but according to the Nikkei daily, organisers estimate it will cost an extra $2.7 billion, which will include venue rentals, rebooking hotels and additional payments for staff and security. These costs could come down depending on the outcome of negotiations, the business daily reported. The IOC is working with sports bodies to hold the

Games in July-August next year, between the Wimbledon and US Open slams, and hopes to confirm the schedule within a month, Japan’s Yomiuri reported.

FIDE STOPS CANDIDATES

CHENNAI: The world governing body of chess (FIDE) stopped the Candidates tournament in Yekatrinburg, Russia at halfway stage after the hosts decided to ban all flights into and out of the country owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The prestigious tournament was stopped after seven rounds. Eight players fight it out in the Candidates to determine who challenges world champion Magnus Carlsen. FIDE said the tournament would be continued later, in the same composition starting with the games of the eighth round. France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi would go into the second half leading by a point on 4.5.