Tokyo Olympics: Spectators seek ticket refunds
The Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee is set to refund foreign fans who’d already purchased tickets to watch the Games.
The Committee is separately expected to consider the requests of foreign fans invited to watch the Games by corporate on a case by case basis. This is in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Japan has reported over 441,000 positive coronavirus cases, with about 420,000 recoveries and 8359 deaths so far.
The Olympics Games were originally scheduled to be held from July 24 to August 9, 2020, but were rescheduled to between July 23 and August 8 after the coronavirus struck the Asian country.
Japan expected over 1 million overseas spectators and had already sold 4.45 million tickets of which about 810,000 requests for refunds have been made so far.
Kenyan sports fans will likely miss the live-action in Tokyo with the country’s best athletes expected to dominate the middle and long-distance races.
The world marathon record holders Eliud Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei as well as 1500 metres Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon and the two-time 800m Olympic winner David Rudisha, will be seeking podium finishes
Meanwhile, the Kenya Sevens rugby team will be looking to right their wrongs from the disappointing outing at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil, where they won a single game out of a possible five.
The one-year postponement of the games has caused the cost to increase to at least $ 15 billion, which is about 150 billion Kenya shillings, and the organizing committee was expecting to make 90 billion yen ($ 800 million) from the ticket sales.
Overall, this will be the fourth Olympic Games to be staged in Japan. The other editions were held in 1964 in Tokyo, 1972 Sapporo, and 1998 in Nagano.
The 2021 Games will include new disciplines including surfing, sport climbing, skateboarding, baseball, and karate.