FILE PHOTO: Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike delivers a speech during a ceremony celebrating one year out from the start of the summer games in front of Tokyo Station in Tokyo, Japan July 24, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato
TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike gave her reluctant consent to moving the marathon venue to Sapporo for next year’s Summer Games, ending a showdown between the Japanese capital and the International Olympics Committee over staging the event.
“I think we must move forward,” Koike said at a four-party meeting with representatives from the IOC, the 2020 organizing committee and the national government, which was open to media. “I don’t approve but the decision can’t be avoided.”
Reporting by Elaine Lies; Writing by Chris Gallagher