Olympics organisers may further reduce overseas delegates by 25,000

Tokyo : The Tokyo 2020 organisers could further reduce the number of foreign delegates attending the Olympic and Paralympic Games by as much as 25,000 to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 during the showpiece event next month.

Should the organisers take the decision, the number will come down to 53,000.

Last month, the organisers had brought down the numbers from an estimated 180,000 to 78,000, a reduction of more than 60 per cent.

Sports website insidethegames.biz, quoting Kyodo News, said that the Tokyo 2020 Games delivery officer Hidemasa Nakamura had confirmed the "organising committee's intention to further reduce the number of people attending from overseas".

The organisers recently released the third and final version of the Games playbook, which has stringent coronavirus countermeasures, including throwing out the athletes and officials who violate Covid norms.