Beating the heat: Tokyo marathons to start early
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The Tokyo 2020 Olympic marathons will start at 6am, organizers announced yesterday, after doctors warned of deadly medical emergencies in the Japanese capital鈥檚 stifling summer heat.
The men鈥檚 50-kilometer race walk will start even earlier, at 5:30am, with organizers saying they had taken medical advice into account in timetabling the events.
The scheduling decisions were taken 鈥渁fter discussions with medical teams and stakeholders and considering the well-being of athletes,鈥 Tokyo 2020 sports director Koji Murofushi told reporters.
Other sports, including rugby sevens, triathlon and mountain biking have also seen schedules shifted to avoid the worst of potentially blistering temperatures for the July 24 to August 9 Games.
Games organizers had already said the marathons would start 鈥渂etween 5:30am and 6am鈥 after a heatwave that struck the country last summer, prompting Japanese medics to warn that running the race in mid-morning could 鈥渓ead to deaths鈥 from heatstroke.
The last time Japan hosted the Summer Olympics, in 1964, the competition was held in October to avoid the hot summer conditions.
Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said the possibility of extreme weather conditions, ranging from typhoons to heatwaves, was a 鈥渕ajor issue鈥 and International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach has also voiced concern.
Tokyo has considered a range of options to fight the heat, including daylight saving, but that gained little traction.
But other countermeasures such as solar-blocking paint on roads and mobile misting stations are planned.
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