TOKYO: The Olympic marathon and race walking events during Tokyo 2020 Games will be be moved to Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido from the originally planned Tokyo due to high temperatures, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday.
“The move to Hokkaido, the northern-most prefecture of Japan, will mean significantly lower temperatures for the athletes during the Olympic Games,” the committee said on its website.
Organisers of next year’s Tokyo Olympics had been looking for new ways to battle heat. Temperatures in Tokyo during July and August, when the city hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games, commonly exceed 30 degrees Celsius, with high humidity adding to the discomfort.
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The Games will be held from July 24-August 9, a period where temperatures can hit 37 degrees Celsius and humidity rises to over 80 percent.
The main concern is heatstroke, particularly among spectators unused to hot weather who will spend hours outdoors watching events or queuing.
Tokyo officials have been working on the problem for years, but efforts are ramping up ahead of the Games.
One project aims to repopularise a Japanese tradition: “uchimizu”, or the sprinkling of water on the street to bring temperatures down.
Another measure is solar-blocking “paint”, which will cover the entire marathon route, though only on the road, not pavements where spectators will stand.
