Tokyo Olympic organizers are finalizing plans to request that fans refrain from lining the streets to watch the Olympic marathons and race walking events to be held in Sapporo.
The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, in agreement with the Hokkaido and Sapporo governments, is planning to push for spectator-less races in order to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus, with a final decision expected to be made Tuesday at a working-level meeting between the three parties.
On Monday, Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki expressed his concerns in a meeting with Hiroshi Sato, vice director general of the organizing committee, of an outbreak in Sapporo being caused by spectators coming from the Tokyo metropolitan area, which is having a resurgence of infections. He asked for the call on people to refrain from watching the races.
According to an Olympic source, the meeting on Tuesday will consider measures to prevent people from lining the streets, touching on issues that emerged during a test event held in May.
The matter of what to do about spectators at the marathons and race walking events was left undecided at the five-way meeting held in June between the organizing committee, Japan government, International Olympic Committee and other concerned parties. It was left up to the organizing committee to work out the issue in consultation with the local governments.
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