World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe believes Olympics will be held

TOKYO: World Athletics (WA) president Sebastian Coe said here on Sunday that the Tokyo Olympics will be held as "a beacon of hope and optimism" despite the worsening Covid-19 situation in the host nation.

"I think that it will also act as a beacon of hope and optimism in a world that I hope is soon moving back to some type of normalcy," said the Brit, who arrived here five days ago for his second visit to Tokyo in six months.

"I think that these Games will leave a strong lasting legacy, not just for Japan but at a time when the world is coming to terms with some pretty difficult and harrowing months."

Coe, who was the president of the London 2012 Organising Committee, held a press conference at the Olympic Stadium in central Tokyo before watching the athletics test event at the venue.

The event, the last track and field event that will be held at the Olympic Stadium before the Games open on July 23, was held without spectators and featured 420 athletes. And only nine of them were travelling from overseas, including American sprinter Justin Gatlin, who won the men's 100 metres gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics and the silver in the same event in Rio five years ago.

The Japanese government on Friday extended the state of emergency over Covid-19 in Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto until the end of May while expanding it to Aichi and Fukuoka prefectures.

But Coe was optimistic about the success of the Games, saying that athletes are all looking forward to competing in Tokyo.

"I speak to the athletes all the time. I am consistently bowled over by the way they are dealing with, by the day, some of these restrictions and some of these added challenges. The vast majority of athletes I speak to wanting to get into the Games understand that it will not be the type of games they've experienced before." IANS

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