Athletics
OLYMPIC LEGEND, BOLT, TO FEATURE AT TOKYO 2020 OLYMPIC STADIUM INAUGURATION
BY MICHAEL PAVITT.
The Tokyo 2020 New National Stadium will officially open this Saturday with a special event featuring Olympic and Paralympic stars.
Eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt is among the headliners set to participate in the opening of the new 60,000-capacity venue.
The retired Jamaican sprinter has already arrived in the Japanese capital.
He will help open the Stadium, which will host athletics competition during the Games, as well the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics.
Construction work was completed on the Stadium on November 20.
It was a joint project between Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, building firm Taisei Corp and design firm Azusa Sekkei Co, which started in December 2016.
The new arena, constructed on the site of the National Stadium originally built in 1958 and which staged the 1964 Olympic Games, features a plant-covered facade designed to maintain harmony with the natural landscape of the neighboring Meiji Jingu Gaien area.
The eaves of the distinctive roof are made of wood gathered from the country’s 47 prefectures.
The Stadium is the second to be approved, after initial plans were scrapped in 2015 by Prime Minister Shinzō Abe due to spiralling costs.
It meant construction began about 14 months later than planned, after the original design by the late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid was discarded following a public outcry.
The completed Stadium is believed to have cost ¥157 billion (£1.2 billion/$1.4 billion/€1.3 billion).
The inauguration event has been titled “Hello Our Stadium”.
Bolt will feature as part of the proceedings, which are claimed to tie together sport, music and culture.
He will join Olympic and Paralympic athletes from other countries, including hosts Japan, in a unique relay, dubbed “One Race”.
Japanese sprinters Anna Doi, Aska Cambridge, Yoshihide Kiryu, Chisato Fukushima, Shota Iizuka, Shuhei Tada, Yuki Koike and Kana Ichikawa will participate.
Para-alpine skier Momoka Muraoka, Paralympic long jumper Saki Takakuwa and sprinter Syunsuke Itani will also feature.
Britain’s Paralympic stars Hannah Cockroft and Jonnie Peacock have been confirmed as participants, as well as The Netherlands’ Marlou van Rhijn, the United States’ Jarryd Wallace and Raymond Martin.
The inauguration event was ticketed for members of the public.
The Emperor’s Cup soccer final on January 1 is scheduled to be the first public sporting event held at the venue.
Japan’s Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda has announced that the Government has decided not to draw up a plan to privatise the new Stadium post-Games until after autumn in 2020.
According to Hagiuda, the privatisation scheme has been pushed back for security reasons, as detailed architectural drawings of the Stadium cannot be shown to potential bidders for the time being.
After undergoing renovations, the stadium is scheduled to start commercial operation in the second half of 2022.
-insidethegames
Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan is the winner as the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS has rejected the appeals filed by World Athletics and WADA.
The decision confirms the decision taken by the World Athletics disciplinary tribunal finding that Tobi Amusan did not commit any anti-doping rule violation.
Here is the full statement of CAS.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeals filed by
World Athletics (WA) and by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the decision issued on 17 August 2023 (the Challenged Decision) by the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal (WADT) in relation to the hurdler Oluwatobiloba (Tobi) Amusan (Nigeria).
Accordingly, the Challenged Decision in which the WADT considered that Tobi Amusan did not violate Rule 2.4 of the WA Anti-Doping Rules (WA ADR) and that no period of ineligibility should be imposed on the Athlete is confirmed.
The Athlete was initially charged with committing an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) under Rule 2.4 WA ADR following three alleged Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period.
In their respective appeal to CAS, WA and WADA had sought the imposition of a two-year period of ineligibility. The CAS Panel held a hearing on 19 January 2024. Having deliberated, the CAS Panel has issued its decision today dismissing both appeals. The CAS Panel unanimously acknowledged that the Athlete committed two filing failures but did not confirm the existence of a missed test, alleged by WA and WADA, which would have been the third Whereabouts Failure committed within a 12-month
period. Accordingly, the CAS Panel concluded that the Athlete did not commit an ADRV and that the Challenged Decision should be confirmed.
The reasoned award will be published by CAS unless the parties request confidentiality.
Nigeria’s Paris 2024 medal hopeful, Tobi Amusan has been cleared as the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the World Athletics.
She is therefore cleared to feature at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Amusan is the 100m hurdles world record holder.
The athlete was charged in July last year with missing three anti-doping tests in 12 months but was cleared of the offence by the Disciplinary Tribunal of the sport’s governing body, World Athletics.
The Integrity Unit of the World Athletics appealed the clearance which has now been dismissed by CAS, the final arbiter in the case.
CAS in its statement remarked that its panel “unanimously acknowledged that the athlete committed two filing failures but did not confirm the existence of a missed test, alleged by WA and WADA, which would have been the third Whereabouts Failure committed within 12 months.”
Amusan set the world record of 12.12 seconds in the world championships in Eugene, Oregon, in July 2022 and went on to win the title.
She finished sixth in the world championships in Budapest last year.
World Athletics’ anti-doping rules say any athlete failing to declare their whereabouts for a doping test on three occasions over 12 months is ineligible to compete for two years.
An elated Nigeria’s 100m hurdles world record holder, Tobi Amusan has thanked God for her success in an appeal filled against her by the Athletics Integrity Unit of the World Athletics.
Had the appeal been upheld, ,Amusan would have has to miss the Paris 2024 Olymoics.
“It’s ALL GOD” Amusan said in an Instagram post alongside the court’s announcement.
Amusan, who broke the world record during her semi-final race at the 2022 world championships, is a hot favourite in her signature event at the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26.
World Athletics and WADA did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
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