(ATR) The five new sports for Tokyo 2020 take their next steps following IOC approval of venues.
The IOC's ruling body signed off on the venues plan at its meeting in Lausanne.
Baseball and softball will be held at the Yokohama Stadium. Discussions around using a venue in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture to hold some preliminary games are still ongoing, Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori told reporters. The region was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 which sparked a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant.
One issue still to be resolved is how to bring the best players from Major League Baseball to the Olympics.
The World Baseball and Softball Confederation reacted with "delight" to the IOC’s approval of Yokohama Stadium as the main venue for the sports’ return to the Olympics.
WBSC president Riccardo Fraccari said "Yokohama Stadium with its downtown skyline will provide a spectacular backdrop for Olympic baseball and softball – this is an exciting day that takes baseball and softball one step closer on the historic road to Tokyo 2020."
Karate events will be staged at Nippon Budokan, which is already hosting judo competitions in 2020.
Skateboarding and sport climbing are set to be hosted at the Aomi Urban Sports Venue, a temporary facility with Tokyo Bay as a backdrop.
Surfing competitions will be staged on the Tsurigasaki beach in the Chiba prefecture, which stretches about 60 kilometers along Japan’s Pacific coast.
In all, the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will use a total of 39 venues – eight new permanent arenas, 22 existing sites and nine temporary facilities.
The IOC Session meeting in Rio in August approved the package of five sports for the Tokyo Games. The new sports will result in 474 athletes competing in 18 extra events at the Games.
Reported by Mark Bissonin Lausanne.
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