IOC Examines Tokyo 2020 Venue Challenges -- On the Scene

(ATR) Former film star Kensaku Morita has today welcomed the IOC's Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission members to the Makuhari Messe - thenew venue for taekwondo, wrestling and fencing.

Japan’s answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Morita has been Governor of the Chiba Prefecture since 2009, before which he was a famous actor.

Chiba is located east of Tokyo and Morita boldly claims it to be known as "the sports prefecture" of the region."As governor of Chiba I look forward to showing the Olympics to Chiba," he said in comments to media at the venue on Tuesday.

Originally slated to take place at the Tokyo Big Sight, the three Olympic sports will now be contested at the Makuhari Messe, a move which was confirmed by the IOC Executive Board earlier this month.

Commission chairman John Coates told reporters that the broadcast center needed more space."It looks to be a fairly logical solution to the problem. It is on the bay and it will be a nice cluster," he said.

Located about 30km out of Tokyo, the Makuhari Messe is 35 minutes on a direct train from the city's main station. Built in 1989, it is a commonly used venue cluster for conferences, concerts and some sport. It is also adjacent to a major baseball stadium, which could bode well for the short-listed sport aiming to be added to the 2020 program.

Whilst the building itself is well-equipped to handle the scale of the Olympics, and is easily accessible for large volumes of spectators, the inner workings of the venue are outdated.

"Whilst it still looks very modern some things such as lighting and electronics need to be refurbished. But it was our plan to do these renovations regardless of the Olympics,"Morita said.

"We want to make it [the venue] even better. We want visitors after the Olympics to be happy. We will try to keep it [spending] to a minimum. If we spend this money there needs to be a good legacy in place for the citizens. I would like to promote the joy of sport, even after the Olympics is over."

The renovations are estimated to cost $123 million. According to Morita, the Chiba Prefecture will "partly pay" for the costs. But as to how much and who will foot the rest ofthe bill, this remains unclear.

Agenda 2020 in Action

On Monday, commission members visited Izu, proposed venue for track cycling. Having more sports outside of central Tokyo veers from the original bid plan, but according to Coates this is a good thing,

"The venues aren’t as compact as they were," he said. "It used to be 85 per cent were within eight kilometres of the Village, now it’s 66 per cent.

"This is a city of 35 million people though. By going out to places like Saitama [basketball venue north of Tokyo], you are going out to where the population is."

Reaching the local population is a key factor in the IOC’s Agenda 2020 principals of legacy and inspiring young people to participate in sport.

"The soft legacy of the Games will be encouraging young kids to get back into sport - particularly after the traumas of Fukushima," Coates said.

"The education program they have in place is impressive. There are something like 700 schools and universities that are offering themselves for visiting teams. And it’s a long way off, but the torch relay will touch everyone here."

The IOC commission members also visited the Sea Forest venue for rowing and canoe/kayak sprint.

"The venue is a challenge," said Coates. "It’s a channel in the harbor channel and they need to put a big steel gate on either end to stop the tide. But it is a large legacy project. The municipal government wanted to have it out there for future competitions and for kids."

With venues high on the coordination commission’s priority list for this visit, the evaluation will be eagerly anticipated by Tokyo 2020. As for the most pressing, the track cycling velodrome, Coates has indicated that a decision is imminent.

"[This visit] will just be a report, that won’t be signed off. We expect it will be by Kuala Lumpur [IOC Session] at the end of July," he confirmed.

The IOC wraps up its two-day check-up of Tokyo 2020 preparations on Wednesday.

Reported in Tokyo by Alice Wheeler

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