The decision to exclude runners from the general public from this year's Tokyo Marathon on March 1 amid virus fears has put pressure on officials of other marathon events scheduled in March and April, including the men's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon and the Nagoya Women's Marathon slated for March 8, both of which are final qualifying events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer.
The Tokyo Marathon is the second qualifier for the Olympic men's marathon. The category of elite athletes will be held as planned and top runners will compete, including Suguru Osako of Nike Inc., who holds the Japanese record, Yuta Shitara of Honda Motor Co. and Hiroto Inoue of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd.
Tadasu Kawano, the Japan Association of Athletics Federations' long-distance and marathon director, said: "If [the Tokyo Marathon] hadn't been an Olympic qualifying event, it could've been canceled like an ordinary sport event. I'd like to express my thanks to the organizers."
Only JAAF registered runners are allowed to participate in the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon. However, Kawano said, "We'll have to watch the situation," following the decision by the organizers of the Tokyo Marathon.
A Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon official said: "We're alerting athletes about measures to prevent infection. So far, there has been no such impact as cancellations by foreign runners."
Yuka Ando and Kayoko Fukushi, both of whom belong to Wacoal Corp., and other top athletes will run in the Nagoya Women's Marathon, alongside 22,000 runners from the general public.
A source from the event said: "We've been considering what measures to take while sharing information with the organizers of the Tokyo Marathon. We'll announce the measures as soon as they've been decided."
Many public marathons are planned in various parts of the country this spring.
Ten thousand runners are expected to participate in the Nagano Marathon to be held on April 19.
Event official Makoto Yajima said: "There are about 400 entries from abroad, but we can't anticipate what will happen. We have to collect more information."
The Tokyo metropolitan government is a coorganizer of the Tokyo Marathon. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told reporters on Monday: "The spread of infections has entered a new phase. I'm really sorry, but I'd like to ask for your understanding and cooperation. It was a difficult decision."
The Tokyo metropolitan government has held repeated discussions with the Tokyo Marathon Foundation about how to manage the event since the outbreak.
Runners from China had been urged not to take part in the race and such measures as sending surgical masks to participants had been taken.
The organizers eventually decided to scale back the event by canceling the entries of about 38,000 runners.
A senior official of the metropolitan government said, "If we can't contain the spread at this stage, questions could be raised about safety of the Olympics and Paralympics."
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