The National Stadium of Japan, which was built for the Tokyo Olympics, will host its first track and field event. The Japan Association of Athletics Federation (JAAF) announced it on Tuesday. The Golden Grand Prix 2020 race will take place on 23 August at this stadium. The race was earlier scheduled to be held on 10 May as a test event for the Olympics but was postponed due to Coronavirus.
The JAAF issued a statement saying that only Japanese athletes will participate in this Grand Prix race due to travel restrictions. Apart from the top athletes in the country, high school athletes will also participate as the National High School Championship or all other events have been canceled this year due to Coronavirus. Fans will not be allowed to come to the stadium to watch this event. They will be able to watch live action on TV.
The Tokyo Olympic Games were scheduled to begin on July 24 this month, but the Olympics were postponed till 2020 due to coronavirus. It will now be held in 2021 from 23 July to 8 August.
The stadium built for the Tokyo Games uses 87% wood. It uses 2000 cubic meters of cedarwood. The wood was brought from the forests of 47 provinces of Japan that were devastated by the 2011 tsunami.
The aim is to keep the audience connected to nature and not feel hot. For this, 185 large fans and cooling nozzles have also been installed at 8 places. The 5-storey main stadium is worth about 10 thousand crores. More than 60 thousand visitors will be able to sit here.
Japan's has already lost 56 thousand crore rupees due to the postponement of Olympic. Also, extra expenditure of 20 crores rupees on it has also increased.
On June 12, Tokyo Olympic president Yoshiro Mori said that there was no talk with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about the cancellation of the Olympic Games. He had said in the executive board meeting of the organizing committee that the IOC should take a decision only after reviewing every aspect.