Schedules fixed for all Tokyo Olympic competitions

April 17, 2019

Tokyo--The organizing committee for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled Tuesday the detailed schedules for all competitions in the Olympics, moving up the start time for men's and women's marathon to 6 a.m. from the earlier planned 7 a.m. due to concerns over severe summer heat.

For the same reason, the 20-kilometer race walk for both men and women will start at 6 a.m., one hour earlier than previously planned, and the men's 50-kilometer race walk will begin at 5:30 a.m., instead of 6 a.m.

The start time was also changed for soccer, open water swimming and triathlon.

The first competition event in the Tokyo Olympics will be a game of softball, to be held in the city of Fukushima, the capital of Fukushima Prefecture, on July 22, 2020, two days before the opening ceremony for the quadrennial sporting event.

One of the two competing teams in the softball game will likely be Japan, according to officials of the committee. Fukushima is one of the three northeastern prefectures hit hardest by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Women in the 10-meter air rifle event, to be held in July 25, 2020, will be the first to win medals in the 2020 Games.

Applications for tickets for Olympic competitions, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies, will be accepted from next month.

Through the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Japan aims to promote the reconstruction of areas affected by the quake and tsunami, and the subsequent accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station.

For the Olympics, some baseball games will be held in Fukushima, and some soccer matches in Miyagi Prefecture, another of the three prefectures ravaged by the quake and tsunami. Jiji Press