IOC ‘confident’ Tokyo 2020 venues will be ready on time

TIL Desk Sports/ Tokyo organisers are back on track and will complete their 2020 Olympic venues on schedule, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said today at the start of a three-day visit.

After bungling the rollout of the showpiece Olympic stadium two years ago, local organisers have come under scrutiny but last month unveiled their first new permanent venue for the 2020 Olympics in a welcome public relations boost.

The new national stadium is set to be completed by November 2019 after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tore up the original blueprints over its eye-watering 2 billion price tag. But the IOC’s Games coordination commission chairman John Coates backed Tokyo 2020 to deliver the venue on time.

“It was a significant accomplishment to complete the first permanent venue,” he said before a meeting with key Japanese officials, including Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike and Olympics Minister Shunichi Suzuki.

“There are six other venues under way and with the progress of the national stadium, we are very confident of meeting the delivery dates you’ve set.” Other items on the agenda in Tokyo this week are security, efforts to further reduce the 12 billion Games budget and anti-doping protocols, officials said.