LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The dates and details of the routes to be used for the Tokyo Olympic marathon and race walk events in Sapporo were announced Wednesday by organizers.
The IOC and the Tokyo organizing committee said the women’s and men’s marathons will run on back-to-back days, Aug. 8 and 9, on the final weekend of the games. Both races will start at 7 a.m. — later than the scheduled times in Tokyo, where the women’s race was to be on Aug. 2.
All five marathon and race walk events will be condensed in a four-day span to help coaches and team officials support athletes in Sapporo.
The IOC announced in October that the events would be moved from Tokyo to the northern city of Sapporo due to projected high temperatures in the Olympic host city.
Sapporo Odori Park will host the race walks in one-kilometre and two-kilometre loops. A 20-kilometre loop will provide the first half of the marathon course.
The race walks will start maintain their early starts — 4:30 a.m. for the men’s and women’s 20k events and 5:30 a.m. for the men’s 50k race.
Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee, who has been critical of the IOC’s decision to move the events to Sapporo, argued against the early start times.
"Goddamnit. 5:30am. It’s supposed to be cooler in Sapporo," he posted on Twitter. "We don’t need to race at 5:30am. Waking up at 2:30 to get ready doesn’t help our well-being. Having no spectators there certainly won’t help either. At least my parents can finally book flights.
World Athletics will join a site visit this month to study options for completing the marathon route.
The IOC abruptly announced moving the races in October, fearing Tokyo’s summer heat could repeat TV images of struggling athletes in Doha, Qatar, during the recent world championships.
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