It’s mixed relays at the Tokyo Olympics!

A RADICAL overhaul of events for Tokyo 2020 has added mixed relays in athletics and swimming and made the Games the most evenly balanced ever by increasing the number of women.

The International Olympic Committee ( IOC) revealed a 4x400m relay involving both men and women on the track and a mixed 4x100m medley relay in the swimming pool.

There is also a mixed relay in the triathlon, which should favour Team GB, and mixed table tennis.

The madison, dropped before London 2012, is back in the cycling programme, which also has free- style BMX, with both events for men and women.

Basketball has gained a threeon-three event, played on half the court, swimming is boosted by men’s 800m and women’s 1500m freestyle and some men’s events have been switched to women’s, including one in rowing, two in boxing and three in canoeing.

The IOC announcement of 15 new events for the Games included notice of a reduction of 285 athletes — 105 in track and field — from the 11,237 at Rio last summer — and it is the men who miss out more.

The International Association of Athletics Federations, headed by Lord Coe, said they are ‘disappointed’ by the reduction in the athletes quota.

‘While we applaud the IOC’s stance on gender equality in all sports, reducing the quota will inevitably have an impact on our joint goals of universality,’ they said.

The changes mean a record 48.8 per cent of the competitors at Tokyo 2020 will be women, up from 46.1 at Rio 2016, with the IOC aspiring to make it 50:50.