[Sport] Tokyo Olympics... The torch's arrival in the Japanese capital in the absence of fans

[Love Pulse]

link: https://www.msn.com/ar-ae/sports/news/أولمبياد-طوكيو-وصول-الشعلة-إلى-العاصمة-اليابانية-في-غياب-الجماهير/ar-AALXIB0

 

 

The Olympic flame arrived in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, today, Friday, as part of a modest celebration held in an empty stadium, a day after local authorities and Olympic organizers decided to ban fans in most facilities for fear of the emerging Corona virus “Covid-19”.

Two weeks before the Games' opening ceremony scheduled for July 23, the torch arrived at its lantern spot and was symbolically handed over to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

 

The organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, postponed from last year due to the repercussions of the "Covid-19" pandemic, and local authorities announced Thursday evening a decision to prevent local fans from attending sports competitions in the capital. In return for allowing a limited number of people to attend facilities outside Tokyo, such as Fukushima Prefecture.

The ban on a sports wedding would make the first Games in Olympic history to be held, to a large extent, behind closed doors.

The ban on fans coincided with the Japanese government’s decision to extend the state of health emergency, the fourth extension since the beginning of the epidemic, in Tokyo until August 22, knowing that the Games will end on the eighth of them.

The Olympic torch relay was expected to stoke enthusiasm in the hearts of fans, but mass escorts were banned in many prefectures and also in Tokyo in the archipelago, replaced by symbolic torch-lighting ceremonies without spectators.

empty stands
In a simple, no-parade celebration that has accompanied festivities throughout the history of these games, the arrival of the Olympic torch was accompanied by five musicians who played catchy tunes, under a roof that protected them from the rain in front of the media. A handful of officials, in front of the empty stands at the Olympic Stadium in Kumazawa in the southern suburbs of the capital, which was built specifically to host the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

"I am delighted to receive the Olympic torch with this heritage that we proudly display at home and abroad," Koike said.

However, the Tokyo governor, who was recently hospitalized due to exhaustion, coughed three times during her brief talk and several times afterward.

 

Koike, on Thursday, considered holding the games behind closed doors as "heartbreaking", and called on residents to follow the games from their homes "in a safe manner."

 

In the same context, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, in conjunction with the declaration of a state of emergency, stressed the need to "prevent a new outbreak of infection throughout Japan, given the impact of new variables."

The new mutant 'delta' represents 30% of the new positive cases in the archipelago.

At a time when Japan was among the countries that were relatively successful in curbing the outbreak of the epidemic, with fewer than 15,000 deaths officially recorded since early 2020, but the vaccination program was only activated as of last May.

Only 15 percent of the po[CENSORED]tion has received the vaccine so far, while specialists fear that the "delta" mutation will cause a new wave that could drain the medical body.