The Tokyo Olympics torch relay began yesterday after a year’s delay amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with officials hoping it will be a “ray of light” amid the disruptions.
Spectators were barred from the departure ceremony and first leg due to restrictions prompted by the pandemic, which forced the Games’ postponement a year ago.
However, people are to line the rest of the route during the 121-day relay, which is to criss-cross Japan and involve 10,000 runners before the torch lights the Olympic cauldron on July 23.
Photo: Reuters
Organizers are hoping that the relay would dispel doubts about holding the Games during a pandemic, and Japanese Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Seiko Hashimoto called the flame “a ray of light at the end of the darkness.”
“This little flame never lost hope and it waited for this day like a cherry blossom bud just about to bloom,” Hashimoto told the ceremony at Fukushima’s J-Village sports complex, which was a base for responding to the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster.
Azusa Iwashimizu, one of Japan’s 2011 World Cup-winning women’s soccer players, was the first to carry the rose-gold, cherry blossom-shaped torch, accompanied by former teammates.
Photo: EPA-EFE
She passed the flame to Fukushima high-school student Asato Owada, who like all the runners wore an official white tracksuit with a red diagonal stripe.
A handful of fans watched the relay from its second section, but with cheering and large crowds banned, the loudest sound came from clicking cameras.
“I think it somewhat lacks excitement because there are rules,” spectator Tetsuya Ozawa told reporters in the town of Naraha. “I think more people would have come and there would have been more excitement if there wasn’t coronavirus.”
However, 10-year-old Tsuzumi Sugeno was thrilled nonetheless.
“This will be a great memory,” Sugeno told reporters.
“I want to become a professional baseball player and play at the Olympics,” he said.
Organizers were making final preparations for the relay last year when the pandemic prompted the unprecedented decision to postpone the Games as major sports around the world ground to a halt.
Overseas spectators are barred from the Games, and limits are likely on domestic fans, so the relay is seen as a vital opportunity to build positive momentum.
The Fukushima launch also puts the spotlight back on the northeastern region of Tohoku, which was affected by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.
The Games were initially billed as the “Recovery Olympics,” showcasing reconstruction in the region.
The relay is to pass through some towns that remain only partially open to the public as radiation decontamination continues.
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