By Dhammika Ratnaweera
The International Olympic Committee on Thursday conducted a teleconference with regard to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that is posing questions on the conducting of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games which is scheduled for July-August this year.
The Video Conferencing with IOC President Bach’s, accompanied by Pere Miró, deputy director of the IOC, and James Macleod, director of Olympic Solidarity and Relations with the NOCs with NOC’s of Asia was held with the participation of ALL NOCs except India, Vietnam (due to technical issues) and President emphasised the importance of taking care of athletes and they are well being as the most important fact together with trying to Optimistic and to answer any questions if anyone NOCs have with regards to Tokyo 2020.
Nonetheless, it was reiterated that the Games would go ahead as scheduled. Speaking on the situation NOC SL Secretary General Maxwell de Silva who represented Sri Lanka at the confab said “The present situation has presented many shortfalls for the smaller countries like Sri Lanka who find it a hard grind to qualify for the games without going through the full qualifying system. So, the organisers would have to think of some cushioning system for them.”
NOC Sri Lanka Athletes’ Commission Chairman, Niluka Karunaratne addressed the issue with regard to qualification events as most of the events are been cancelled due to current COVID-19 issue and requested IOC to address this matter with fair treatment.
In reply the IOC admitted that there is concern about preparations by each country and their athletes and justice will be done and James McLeod indicated that they will review and revert by mid-April. This is being addressed and China, Korea, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and seven more countries.
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