Flame arrives at 1896 Games venue
Handover ceremony to be held on Thursday at Panathenaic Stadium in central Athens
>> ATHENS: A day after the Greek leg of the Tokyo Olympic torch relay was called off when spectators crowded the roadway in the midst of the new coronavirus outbreak, the flame arrived in Athens yesterday.
The flame, lit in Olympia on Thursday, arrived at Panathenaic Stadium in central Athens. The stadium, a venue at both the 1896 and 2004 Olympics, will host the ceremony when Japan receives the flame from Greece on Thursday.
Two three-time Olympic champions — women’s wrestler Saori Yoshida and men’s judoka Tadahiro Nomura — will receive the flame for Japan.
The flame is set to arrive in Japan on March 20 at the Japanese Air Self-Defence Force’s Matsushima base in Miyagi Prefecture aboard a chartered plane.
The flame will be put on public display in areas hit hard by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The 121-day Japanese torch relay kicks off at the J-Village football training centre in Fukushima Prefecture, which served as an emergency response headquarters during the nuclear disaster.
Although Tokyo Olympic organisers have asserted their policy of holding the Japan leg of the torch relay as scheduled, they have considered countermeasures to cope with the new coronavirus threat.
The departure ceremony on March 26 may possibly be held behind closed doors, while organisers may request that people refrain from watching the relay from the roadside depending on the status of infections in the areas transited by the relay.
Meanwhile, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike yesterday vowed to take thorough measures against the coronavirus outbreak for the Olympic torch relay through Japan and reaffirmed that preparations for a “safe and secure” 2020 Games were progressing, TV
Asahi reported.
“[We’re] taking thorough infection measures with regards to the Olympic torch relay domestically,” Koike said, adding that preparations for a safe and secure Games were moving forward.
Japan has sought to dispel speculation that the Tokyo 2020 Games could be cancelled or postponed over the coronavirus outbreak, which has crippled global travel and brought the sports world to a virtual standstill.
Japan had 14 new coronavirus cases as of mid-afternoon yesterday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 1,436, a Reuters tally of local media reports showed.
The total infections include 697 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 14 returnees on chartered flights from China, according to data from public broadcaster NHK. The virus has killed 28 people in Japan, including seven from the cruise ship, NHK said.
On Friday, Japan’s parliament approved a bill giving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emergency powers that will let him close schools, halt large gatherings and requisition medical supplies as the country tries to slow the outbreak.