Sports

Tokyo hosts athletics event behind closed doors in test for Olympics

Tokyo, May 9 (EFE).- Tokyo’s Olympic stadium on Sunday hosted an athletics competition involving hundreds of athletes, including foreigners, as a test-run ahead of the Games this summer.

Tokyo 2020 organizers are having to juggle with logistical challenges brought on by Covid-19 restrictions.

Competitors at the event on Sunday had to observe social distancing protocol and the 1,000-member organizing team wore masks.

The competition was held at Tokyo’s new Olympic stadium, one of the main venues for the Games, which have been postponed by a year due to the pandemic and are set to kick off on 23 July.

Oganizers are to decide next month whether or not to let local fans attend the event. Overseas spectators are already barred from attending.

Sunday’s event came two days after authorities extended the public health state of emergency in Tokyo and other prefectures to curb a fourth wave of coronavirus infections.

Japan on Sunday reached a record of 1,144 coronavirus patients with severe symptoms of Covid-19, a day after reporting the highest increase in cases since January.

Around 3% of the Japanese people have received the first shot of a coronavirus vaccine according to the most recent data. EFE

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