by admin | Jan 22, 2020
TOKYO
Uncertainty over Russia’s participation for the third consecutive Olympics and concerns over the heat hang heavy over Tokyo 2020 preparations, with only six months until the opening ceremony.
The Japanese capital has avoided many of the crises that dogged previous Games — International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach said the city is the best prepared host city he has seen, with facilities complete well ahead of schedule and tickets massively oversubscribed.
But elements largely out of organizers’ control have overshadowed the run-up to the 2020 Games, the second time they will have been held in Tokyo after 1964, when a post-war Japan wowed the world with its technological prowess and economic “miracle”.
Chief among these is whether Russian athletes will compete after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) imposed a four-year ban from international sporting events over what it views as a state-sponsored doping scheme.
Moscow has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but sources have told AFP a decision is not expected before May, just weeks before the Games open on July 24.
Bach has urged CAS, the world’s highest sports court, to give a decision that “does not leave room for any kind of interpretation”, warning of “real, total confusion” if the ruling is not watertight.
Russia’s up-in-the-air participation follows confusion at the Rio Games, where the IOC allowed individual federations to decide whether to permit athletes to compete.
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by admin | Jan 30, 2019
Hashima Island in the southwestern Japan city of Nagasaki, better known as “battleship island” for its shape, will reopen to tourists on Feb. 1 after a typhoon-damaged pier and fences in a sightseeing area have been repaired, the local government said Friday.
The tiny deserted island with an abandoned coal mine and apartment buildings for mine workers and their families is one of the constituent assets of a World Cultural Heritage site representing Japan’s industrialization in the late 19th to early 20th centuries.
Hashima is a popular tourist sight receiving some 300,000 visitors annually. It has been closed for sightseeing since October.
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by admin | Jan 30, 2019
Central Japan Railway Co. has said that its N700S bullet train model will go into service on the Tokaido Shinkansen in early July 2020, just before the start of the Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
The railway operator plans to introduce a total of 40 N700S trains over three years to fiscal 2022, which ends in March 2023, with total investment estimated at ¥240 billion, according to the firm’s announcement on Friday. Each train will have 16 cars.
The new model, which is now undergoing test runs, is equipped with a lithium-ion battery system enabling it to travel a certain distance in case of power outages, the first such feature for a shinkansen. Power outlets for passengers will be available at every seat, and the model has more security cameras than the trains now in service
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by admin | Aug 9, 2018
FROM WINNING GLOBAL TITLES TO STARRING IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR VIDEO GAMES, CHRIS COLE HAS BEEN A PROMINENT FIGURE IN THE WORLD OF PROFESSIONAL SKATEBOARDING FOR MORE THAN 15 YEARS. HERE, HE GIVES AN INSIGHT INTO JUST WHAT FANS CAN EXPECT AT THE TOKYO 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES.
“Skateboarding is creativity, it’s self-motivating, it keeps you hyped,” said five-time X Games gold medallist Cole. “It keeps your focus and drives you day-in, day-out on to a positive life.”
It is a fairly convincing argument from a man who embodies the sport like few others.
Given all this, it is perhaps no surprise that Cole views his chosen sport as a lifestyle as much as a competitive contest. He does see the addition of skateboarding to the Olympic programme as the logical next step, for both sides.
“It is the natural progression for skateboarding and the Olympics,” Cole said. “Neither can go back but must move forwards in a positive direction that captures more of an audience and creates a bigger fan base.”
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by admin | Aug 9, 2018
AHMAD ABUGHAUSH MAY BE ONLY 22 YEARS OLD, BUT HE IS ALREADY ARGUABLY THE MOST FAMOUS JORDANIAN ATHLETE OF ALL TIME. AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES RIO 2016, 10TH SEED AHMAD FOUGHT THROUGH FOUR THRILLING TAEKWONDO ROUNDS – INCLUDING DEFEATING BOTH THE LONDON 2012 CHAMPION AND THE SECOND SEED – TO CLAIM THE -68KG CATEGORY GOLD MEDAL. IT WAS JORDAN’S FIRST OLYMPIC MEDAL IN ANY SPORT. BACK IN JORDAN, WE CAUGHT UP WITH THE SMILING FIGHTER TO HEAR WHAT IMPACT HIS GOLD HAS HAD ON HIS HOMELAND, HOW HIS DAILY LIFE HAS CHANGED AND WHY HIS COACH DOES NOT LET HIM HAVE FREE REIGN IN RESTAURANTS.
DID YOU ALWAYS BELIEVE YOU COULD BE THE FIRST JORDANIAN TO WIN AN OLYMPIC MEDAL?
When I got to Rio I believed I could reach the top of the podium. It was a goal but everyone around me said: “You can get a medal, but the gold is so difficult to get.” But I showed them it was possible.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE COOLEST THING YOU HAVE DONE SINCE YOU BECAME OLYMPIC CHAMPION?
I was interviewed a lot on TV and on radio – in Jordan and outside Jordan. I have been to Qatar and the UAE to do interviews. And in 2017 the women’s [football] World Cup trophy came to Jordan and I carried it around in the stadium, showing it to the crowd. And I was invited to the match and to see the women’s national team training beforehand. But my favourite thing has been setting an example for the young people here in Jordan. Many people have taken up taekwondo since [the gold medal win]. I have become their role model, and not just for taekwondo athletes but for everyone in every sport. That is the best thing
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