Emotional pre-event press conference focuses on contrast between an empty stadium in 2021 and full arena in 2025.
It is four years since the Covid-affected Olympics took place in Tokyo. Athletes competed in an empty, soulless stadium and celebrated their achievements by doing remote interviews with journalists wearing face masks.
There will still be face masks at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this month – as many Japanese enjoy the habit of wearing them frequently – but the seats at the Japan National Stadium will be full for most sessions.
Almost 500,000 tickets have been sold for the Sept 13-21 event – already surpassing the number from the last World Champs in Budapest two years ago – with an average so far of 50,000 tickets sold for each evening session.
It is a prospect that quite literally brought a tear to the eye of Yuko Arimori, the newly-appointed president of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations and former marathon runner.
Yuko Arimori (Alisha Lovrich)
Speaking at the pre-event press conference with tears in her eyes, the 58-year-old said: “I ran my first World Championship marathon 34 years ago (placing fourth in the marathon in Tokyo in 1991) but I don’t remember anything because I was too nervous. But now, in the position I am in now, I realise the event is supported by so many people.”
Comparing the empty seats of the Olympics to the expected sold-out sessions in coming days, the 1992 and 1996 Olympic marathon medallist added: “Sport is for everyone to get together and the energy it produces.”
Seb Coe, the World Athletics president, mentioned his emotional connection with the city, as he explained: “I came here in 2020 when the Games were delayed and we were keen to share our common concern over the challenge that lay ahead. I can’t imagine how I’d have felt if someone had knocked on my door in 2012 and told me the opening ceremony would not be held.
Seb Coe (Alisha Lovrich)
“We wouldn’t have wished the Covid experience on anyone but World Athletics came out of it stronger. I’m pleased for very obvious reasons to be here.”
Talking about the impact of an event like this, Coe said: “I could talk about this for hours but sport has a unique ability as the most potent social worker in all our communities and it does this more effectively than any other sector. It has the ability to touch the hearts and minds of young people more than any other sectors.”
Japan National Stadium
Mitsugi Ogata, former president of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations, added that the stadium will be expected to hear the popular Japanese word “sugoi!” a lot in coming days, which roughly translates to “wow!” as they watch the athletics unfold.
The rest of the world will be watching in force as well – an estimated billion viewers worldwide. “This is the largest sporting event of the year by some distance,” said Coe. “There are around 2000 athletes from 200 countries and we will have teams and athletes for the ages.”
Even Usain Bolt is in town, making a well-received return to the global athletics stage in a role as an ambassador for the new World Ultimate Championships in Budapest in 2026.
Usain Bolt, Thea Lafond, Seb Coe and Mondo Duplantis (Will Palmer)
As with Budapest next year, this month’s event in Tokyo will effectively bring the summer track and field season to a close. Coe thinks the decision to rejig the fixtures calendar to allow this to happen was a logical and correct decision.
“The athletes are overwhelmingly supportive of it and I think it just makes sense,” he said. “People were previously confused about a season that seemed to have its crescendo in a world champs or Olympic Games and then we were in Zurich or Brussels a few days later and they struggled to compute what it meant. There is now a rhythm and purpose to the season.
“At the end of these championships it will now be a case of ‘that’s it, folks’ and whoever comes out of here with the bragging rights knows it’s the end of the season.”
As the press conference drew to a close, Coe went back into the final stages of this week’s congress and council meetings. “I’m 10 years into this (job),” he said. “The first four years were about preventing the ship from capsizing. The next four years were about establishing things. And the next two years I’m in a hurry as I want to push things through.”
(Getty)
The World Championships start at 7.30am local time on Saturday (Sept 13) with 35km race-walking races that have been moved to begin half an hour earlier than planned in an effort to avoid the morning heat.
The marathons on the first weekend of the championships have also been switched from an 8am to 7.30am start time. Thursday saw torrential rain storms in the Tokyo area but temperatures generally are approaching 30C and expected to get warmer in coming days with high humidity.
AloJapan.com