Japan trying to take heat out of fears for Olympics

More than 100 kilometres of roads around Tokyo’s city centre are being resurfaced with an innovative reflective material ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics next year in an attempt to significantly reduce the heat.

With only one year until the start of the Olympics, the Tokyo Organising Committee has told The Daily Telegraph that there is significant concern at the possibility of a heatwave following a record temperature above 40C last year.

A safety report has been released and, as well as the decision to start the marathon races at 6am and adjust timings for some other endurance events, a range of special cooling measures are being planned.

“A unique initiative is the heatproof road surfaces being installed by the Tokyo metropolitan government and national government,” said Masa Takaya, the spokesman for Tokyo 2020. “This will reduce the road surface temperature and that will result in a reduction of the air temperature. We are not optimistic about the weather conditions next year. In the last year, we observed the highest temperature recorded in many areas across the country. Tokyo 2020 is committed to addressing this issue.”

Organisers will create shaded areas and install fans where there are likely to be high numbers of spectators. The rebuilt national stadium is “90 per cent complete” and due to open in November while the last of the remaining eight new venues is scheduled to be ready for a test event by February. Latest estimates on total costs are $12.6billion (£9.9 billion), of which around $7 billion will be publicly funded.