Efforts underway to prevent virus surge through Olympic marathon
TOKYO, Aug 2 -- The organisers of the Tokyo Olympic Games are scrambling to take measures to prevent a further increase in novel coronavirus infections in Hokkaido through marathon and race walking events, to be held in Sapporo, the capital of the northernmost Japan prefecture.
According to news report by Jiji Press, the Tokyo Games organising committee and the government of Hokkaido are beefing up their requests for people to refrain from watching the upcoming races from roadsides as marathon is particularly popular in the country. But it is difficult to regulate crowds on public roads, officials said.
The marathon and race walking events will be held from Thursday to Sunday, the final day of the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Sapporo has been chosen as the venue for the events for Tokyo, which tends to see a strong heat wave in summer.
While live spectators have been banned at most Tokyo Olympic venues, fans flocked to see athletes from up close at outdoor events using public roads, such as bicycle races and triathlon.
In a cycling event in Fuchu, Tokyo, on July 24, fans flooded sidewalks along the race course. Some 250 Fuchu municipal officials were mobilized to disperse the crowd and ask the fans to stop watching the race along the course at a time when Tokyo has been under a state of emergency over the coronavirus crisis.
"I think people want to see Olympians live even if only slightly as most Olympic events are being held behind closed doors," a Fuchu municipal official said. "But we can't ban crowds on public roads, so the effects of requests for not gathering to the roadsides were limited."
The Olympic marathon event is scheduled to take place Saturday for women and Sunday for men. The marathon route starts and finishes at Odori Park in central Sapporo and includes such tourist spots as the Susukino entertainment area.
In a test event held in May, about 700 staff members were deployed to prevent crowds from being formed. While the overall number of spectators was small, some parts of the test event course were crowded with fans.
It added that at the Olympic marathon events, about 2,000 personnel will be mobilised, and entry to areas near Odori Park and the Hokkaido prefectural government building will be banned.
Still, it is impossible to fully restrict entry along the course, Yasuo Mori, a senior official of the Tokyo Games organising committee said.
With coronavirus infection cases surging in Sapporo and other areas in Hokkaido, the prefecture was placed in a pre-emergency stage over the epidemic Monday.
"We must ensure that the Olympic events will not result in a further spread of infections," Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki said.
-- BERNAMA
