Next year's Tokyo Marathon has been postponed from March 7 to Oct. 17 due to concerns that they may not be able to have both elite runners and the general public participants.
The Tokyo Marathon Foundation made the decision at an extraordinary board of directors meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
In March this year, only elite runners were allowed to participate due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Taking into consideration the government's travel restrictions and its limiting of the number of participants in events, the foundation deemed it difficult to hold the marathon in March next year with its customary style of having about 38,000 ordinary runners from Japan and abroad take part in the event. As a result, the foundation determined it best to postpone the race until October.
The 2022 Tokyo Marathon will be held on March 6, which is around the event's usual time.
Ordinary runners who had planned to participate in this year's race have the right to take part in either the 2021 or 2022 event. The foundation will confirm each runner's intention in January next year and invite applicants to fill the remaining slots.
The Yomiuri Shimbun is one of the cosponsors of the Tokyo Marathon.
Caption
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Runners start the 2019 Tokyo Marathon in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan government building in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, on March 3, 2019.
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