2020 Olympic Marathons, Race Walks May Be Moved to Sapporo

London, Oct. 16 (Jiji Press)--The International Olympic Committee said Wednesday it is considering moving the marathon and race walk events of the 2020 Tokyo Games to Sapporo in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, due to concerns about extreme heat around Tokyo. The IOC said temperatures in Sapporo in usual years are 5 to 6 degrees Celsius lower than in Tokyo at the time of the 2020 Olympics. The IOC has notified the Tokyo Games organizing committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations of the possible venue change. This matter is set to be discussed at an IOC meeting in Tokyo between Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. "Athletes' health and well-being are always at the heart of our concerns," IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement. "The new far-reaching proposals to move the marathon and race walking events show how seriously we take such concerns," Bach stressed. Currently, the women's and men's marathon events are scheduled to be held in Tokyo on Aug. 2 and 9, respectively, and the race walk events, also in Tokyo, on July 31, Aug. 7 and 8. Given the Asian country's notorious summer heat, the start time for the marathon events has been moved up to 6 a.m. and that for the men's 50-kilometer race walk to 5:30 a.m. But that did not wipe out concerns about the health of athletes and others involved in the events. At the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha between September and October, the women's marathon race was held late at night. But temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius with humidity of over 70 pct, causing more than 40 pct of the participating runners to drop out. END