The Organizing Committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games plans to move up the starting time for the marathon for both men and women to around 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m. from the currently scheduled 7 a.m. due to concern over fierce summer heat during the day.
The organizing committee will soon start to coordinate with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and relevant sports associations over the specifics of how much to move the time up, intending to make a formal decision as early as early next month.
Regarding the starting time, organizations including the Japan Medical Association proposed last month that the committee advance the starting time by 90 minutes to 5:30 a.m., stating that holding the marathon in severe heat "may endanger the lives of athletes and spectators."
The Tokyo committee is considering starting the race around 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m.
Prior to the move, the central government and the ruling parties studied the introduction of daylight saving time for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic games to deal with the heat problem, but abandoned the idea, giving such reasons as that there is a shortage of human resources for computer system changes that would be necessary to introduce daylight saving time.
Relevant sports associations intend to approve of an earlier starting time. On the other hand, some athletes involved in the race say that "physically preparing will be difficult if it starts too early."
While taking these opinions into account, the Tokyo committee will make arrangements to reach a final decision.
The marathon for the Tokyo Olympics will be held on Aug. 2 for women and Aug. 9 for men. This year, the sun rose at 4:49 a.m. on Aug. 2 and 4:55 a.m. on Aug. 9.
The starting time was planned to be 7:30 a.m. when Tokyo expressed its candidacy to host the 2020 games. Later, the organizing committee changed the time to 7 a.m. out of concern over the fierce summer heat and obtained the IOC's approval in July.
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