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Thursday, 28 March 2024

“We have to remake the Games” – Tokyo 2020 taskforce hold first meeting

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“We have to remake the Games” – Tokyo 2020 taskforce hold first meeting
“We have to remake the Games” – Tokyo 2020 taskforce hold first meeting

The taskforce set up by Tokyo 2020 organisers to plan for the delayed Olympics to be held next year met for the first time in the Japanese capital on Thursday.

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT VIDEO SHOWS: TOKYO 2020 TASKFORCE MEETING TO PLAN FOR OLYMPIC GAMES FOLLOWING POSTPONEMENT, OFFICIALS MAKING SPEECHES DURING TASKFORCE MEETING, GAMES DELIVERY OFFICER NAKAMURA SAYING THAT VENUES AND SCHEDULE ARE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS TO DECIDE SHOWS: TOKYO, JAPAN (MARCH 26, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS AL) 1.

VARIOUS OF TOKYO 2020 CEO, TOSHIRO MUTO, ARRIVING FOR TASKFORCE MEETING 2.

MUTO SITTING DOWN 3.

TOKYO 2020 GAMES DELIVERY OFFICER, HIDEMASU NAKAMURA (LEFT) DURING TASKFORCE MEETING 4.

TOKYO 2020 PRESIDENT, YOSHIRO MORI, ARRIVING FOR MEETING WEARING MASK 5.

MORI BEING GREETED BY TOKYO 2020 VICE PRESIDENT TOSHIAKI ENDO 6.

MORI HOLDING MASK 7.

MORI TAKING SEAT 8.

MORI'S MASK ON DESK/ MORI STANDING UP 9.

VARIOUS OF MORI GIVING SPEECH TO START TASKFORCE MEETING 10.

(SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TOKYO 2020 PRESIDENT, YOSHIRO MORI, SAYING: "This is something we have prepared for the last seven or eight years.

All of a sudden, this has all come to a stop so we need to remake the Games.

What this means is that the seven year challenge that we have worked on so far has to be done in the next six months." 11.

MORI MAKING SPEECH 12.

(SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TOKYO 2020 PRESIDENT, YOSHIRO MORI, SAYING: "In this morning's newspaper, President Bach said that this is an unprecedented challenge that we are facing.

So, we are going to take on this unprecedented challenge, starting from today." 13.

OFFICIALS DURING MEETING 14.

(SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TOKYO 2020 PRESIDENT, TOSHIRO MUTO, SAYING: "We are not going to go completely back to a year ago, but I guess we need to step back a little bit.

Already, there are some plans we can still use.

However, for some plans we have to go back to the drawing board and we can." 15.

MEETING IN PROGRESS 16.

(SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TOKYO 2020 PRESIDENT, TOSHIRO MUTO, SAYING: "It is a race against time.

So, let's all come together and work hard together." 17.

VARIOUS OF NAKAMURA ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE 18.

(SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TOKYO 2020 GAMES DELIVERY OFFICER, HIDEMASU NAKAMURA, SAYING: "As Muto said, our primary challenges are the venues and the timing of the schedule.

However, at this moment, it would be hard to reach a conclusion by Monday next week." 19.

VARIOUS OF NAKAMURA LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE STORY: The taskforce set up by Tokyo 2020 organisers to plan for the delayed Olympics to be held next year met for the first time in the Japanese capital on Thursday (March 26).

The taskforce, headed by Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori, has been set up to plan for the rearranged Games which were due to start this July, but have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The team, made up of senior directors across a variety of the organising committee's sub-groups, will meet regularly to work out the logistics behind such a momentous change.

The postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games is the first such unique case in Olympics history and was decided on Monday (March 23) following calls between Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach.

No specifics have been discussed yet on the timing of the delayed Games, but a date needs to be decided as soon as possible, Hidemasa Nakamura, a senior official at Tokyo 2020, told reporters after the task force's first meeting.

Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported on Thursday that the IOC is working with sports bodies to arrange a July-August window for the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and hopes to confirm the schedule within a month.

(Production: Jack Tarrant)

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