- March race will be restricted to elite runners
- News raises more concerns over Tokyo Olympics
Tokyo marathon organisers have cancelled next month’s mass participation race, in which 38,000 people were due to take part, because of the coronavirus. A senior source at the World Marathon Majors confirmed to the Guardian that the event on 1 March would now be limited to the elite field of 176 athletes and 30 wheelchair athletes.
Even at the end of last week organisers were confident that the event would go ahead – and had made plans to distribute surgical masks to runners and volunteers as part of preventive safety measures against the virus. They had also told the 1,800 runners from China registered to race that they could defer their entry until 2021 without any penalty.
Written by Sean Ingle
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/17/tokyo-marathon-restricted-to-elite-runners-over-coronavirus-scare-athletics under the title “Tokyo marathon cancels mass race over coronavirus scare”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
