A state of emergency has been declared in Sapporo, the Japanese city where the marathon and racewalks are set to be held during this summer’s Olympic Games, due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
While the majority of the Games are to be held in the official host city of Tokyo, the marathon and racewalks have been moved 500 miles north to Sapporo because of concerns about heat and humidity in the capital.
Officials in the Hokkaido prefecture have warned residents to stay indoors this weekend and implemented emergency measures which will remain in place until March 19.
More than 900 cases of the disease have now been reported in Japan, many of them on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship which remains quarantined in Yokohama, and schools across the country set to close from the start of next week to try to contain the virus.
The IOC have thus far been confident in their stance that the Games will get underway as planned in July, suggesting that a firm decision over whether or not they can go ahead does not need to be made until the end of May.
The decision to move the marathon to Sapporo had already been controversial, but organisers were keen to avoid a repeat of the ugly scenes of last year’s women’s marathon at the Athletics World Championships in Doha, which was run at midnight to avoid the worst of the heat but still saw more than a third of competitors drop out of the race.
