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The handover took place at a subdued ceremony
at the J-Village National Training Center in Fukushima, which
was originally set to be the starting point of the torch relay.
Only Tokyo 2020 COO Yukihiko Nunomura made the trip north from
the organizing committee.
"This is a (symbol of) hope for the world to celebrate the best
of human beings through Tokyo 2020 after we overcome the serious
coronavirus,” said Nunomura to start the ceremony.
He then handed the Olympic flame to Makoto Noji from the
Fukushima government.
"I strongly believe that the Olympic flame departure from the
J-Village next year will be a strong message that we can
overcome whatever difficulty,” said Noji.
“(It is a) symbol of hope - after we overcome this coronavirus
disease we are now facing, with the people, not only from Japan,
but from all over the world.”
The flame will stay on display in the J-Village until April 30
before being moved to Tokyo. Organizers have not yet decided
where in the Japanese capital it will be displayed.
The International Olympic Committee and Japanese government
succumbed to intense pressure from athletes and sporting bodies
around the world last week by agreeing to push back the Games
because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Tokyo Olympics will now run from July 23 to Aug. 8, 2021.
The J-Village was chosen as the starting point of the 121-day
torch relay, originally due to start on March 26, because it is
a symbol of Japan’s reconstruction following the 2011 earthquake
and tsunami.
The facility was used as a base to launch recovery efforts along
the devastated coastline and has only recently been resurrected
to its former glory as a performance center for Japan’s elite
young soccer players.
(Reporting by Jack Tarrant; additional reporting by Yu Takito;
editing by Peter Rutherford)
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