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SPORTS Friday 18 OctOber 2019
Tale of 2 Cities: Sapporo likes race move; Tokyo not much

By STEPHEN WADE sion would be made after
TOKYO (AP) — Sapporo of- games inspectors visit To-
ficials are thrilled with a pro- kyo for a meeting on Oct.
posal to move next year's 30-Nov. 1.
Tokyo Olympic marathons Local organizing commit-
to the northern Japanese tee president Toshiro Mori,
city to avoid the summer however, said there is no
heat in the city. choice but to accept the
That was not the case in To- proposal, which he said
kyo, where the reaction to sounded more like a de-
the move seemed to catch cision when he received
city and organizing com- a call from IOC president
mittee officials by surprise. Thomas Bach last week.
"We take this as an honor," "Can we say no to the plan
Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro that the IOC and Interna-
Akimoto said. tional Association of Athlet-
Sapporo, which hosted the ics Federation already sup-
1972 Winter Olympics, has ported?" Mori said. "It's not
expressed interest in bid- a question of good or bad, Yoshiro Mori, president of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, speaks to the media in
ding for the 2030 Winter but we just have to accept Tokyo, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019.
Games, and this could be it." Associated Press
a first step. Forecast temperatures in
"I think this could pave the Sapporo are "five to six de- IOC said. including the citizens of To- the change, as well as
way for us," the mayor said. grees centigrade (about Koike said she wants the kyo." security and other logisti-
Tokyo Governor Yuriko 10 degrees F) cooler during IOC to explain "to all of Mori said the size of an ad- cal questions, need to be
Koike was not overjoyed on the day than in Tokyo," the the games stakeholders, ditional cost resulting from resolved.q
Thursday.
"We are very surprised to
learn of this sudden change
of direction," she said, not-
ing the effort that municipal
governments had made to
organize the race.
Koike, however, sided with
the International Olympic
Committee's reasoning —
that of athlete safety and
avoiding Tokyo's blistering
summer heat.
"Of course, the athletes-first
approach is extremely im-
portant," she said.
The IOC released the pro-
posal on Wednesday to
move the marathons and
race walking to Sappo-
ro. The change was an-
nounced quickly, appar-
ently with scant consulting
with local organizers or
government officials.
The trigger was probably
the recent world track
championships in Doha,
Qatar, where 28 of 68 start-
ers failed to finish the wom-
en's marathon and 18 of 73
men failed to complete the
course. The races were run
at midnight in 38 degree C
(100 degree F) heat.
Ethiopian distance-running
great Haile Gebrselassie
said athletes "could have
died" in the women's race.
The marathons in Tokyo
were to start at 6 a.m. to
ease the heat effect on
runners. The men's 50-kilo-
meter race walk final was
slated for a 5:30 a.m. start.
The IOC said a final deci-