Paralympic Marathon Decision for Tokyo

(ATR) While the IOC and Tokyo 2020 are deep into discussions about moving the Olympic marathon races to Sapporo, the Paralympics marathon may stay in Tokyo.

Around the Rings is told that a meeting set for Thursday in Tokyo will consider the situation for the Paralympics marathon.

While the IOC has ordered a change in venue for the men’s and women’s Olympic marathons set for July and August in Tokyo, as well as the race walk events, the International Paralympic Committee is not pressing for a change.

The Paralympic marathon includes wheelchair racers as well as blind runner and those who use leg prosthetics.

Scheduled for Sept. 6, the temperature in Tokyo for the start of Paralympic marathon at 0600 should be around 26c. That’s about 5c cooler than the start time for the Olympics marathon a month earlier.

By the way, experts say that the best temperature for fastest times in a marathon is 6c. Those are conditions obviously not attainable in Tokyo, Sapporo or any other Summer Olympic host city at that time of year.

International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons will take part in an executive meeting on Thursday toclarify the IPC position on the marathon. The IPC and Tokyo 2020 will report on any decisions following the meeting.

Olympic Marathon Meeting Friday

The Olympic marathon question will be handled on Friday, Nov. 1 in a public meeting of the so-called Four-Party Representatives. This top level group includes the IOC, Tokyo 2020, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japanese government.

The participants will include IOC CoComm chair John Coates, Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Seiko Hashimoto, newly appointed Olympic Minister.

Koike is pressing the IOC for a full explanation of the decision to move the Olympic marathon to Sapporo, 800km north of Tokyo. She says Tokyo has taken steps to counter the heat issue, but Coates says the IOC can’t put the health of athletes at risk.

Koike as well as other government officials say they will not be able to pay the extra costs of moving the marathon to Hokkaido prefecture. Settling on the bill for the venue change is expected to be one of the issues the Four Party group will handle in the public meeting.

The developments in Tokyo coincide with the latest meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission. The 15-member panel of IOC members and technical experts is making what is likely their penultimate meeting ahead of the Games, now 10 months away.

Reported by Ed Hula.