By Aakash Kumar
New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, questions are now being raised whether the Tokyo Olympic Games — scheduled to be held in July and August — would go as per the schedule or not.
However, Indian Olympic Association chief Narinder Batra, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is not willing to comment on the status of the Tokyo Games as he believes it’s too soon and there’s plenty of time left before the start of the quadrennial event.
According to a report in New York Post, senior IOC member Dick Pound has said that if it proves too dangerous to hold the Olympics in Tokyo because of the coronavirus outbreak, organisers are likely to cancel it altogether than to postpone or move it.
Asked to comment on the statement, Batra told IANS: “I haven’t read or seen any statement as off now. So, I won’t be able to comment on any hypothetical statement.”
Earlier, IOC coordination commission head Johan Coates had ruled out shifting the Olympics Games from Tokyo and had said that it has no “contingency plans”.
A number of sporting events have been affected, with medical experts in Japan advising against staging large events. The Asian Boxing Qualifiers, which were slated to be held in Wuhan, China in March, were shifted to Jordan.
Training for Olympic volunteers was suspended over the weekend, and Sunday’s Tokyo marathon has been closed to all but elite runners.
On Tuesday, Japan also suspended its football league, making it the latest sporting victim of the deadly coronavirus which has so far claimed thousands of lives across the world.
The Tokyo Olympic Games are scheduled to be held from July 24 to August 9. China toll has crossed 2,600.
–IANS
aak/in