Olympics: IOC report gives Tokyo's 2016 Olympic bid mixed marks

+

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Sept. 2 Kyodo -
Tokyo received a mixture of high and low marks on Monday in the International
Olympic Committee's (IOC) evaluation report on the country's bid to host the
2016 Olympics.
The release of the report assessing the technical bids of the four candidate
cities -- Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo -- comes exactly one month
before the IOC vote in Copenhagen on Oct. 2. The report serves as reference
data for the delegates when they cast their secret ballots in the Danish
capital.
Tokyo, bidding to host the Olympics for the first time since 1964, was praised
for its vision and concept to stage a compact games, efficient public
transport, and financial guarantees.
However, concerns were raised regarding the Japanese capital's lack of public
support -- the lowest of the four bidding cities at 55.5 percent -- while low
marks were also given for existing venues, operations and land area for the
athletes' village.
''I feel we have been evaluated properly,'' said Japanese Olympic Committee
head Tsunekazu Takeda. ''I don't think there are any fatal problems.''
''We have been told (about the public support and athletes' village issues)
before and I think things will be better understood when we show our final
presentation,'' he said.
Noriyuki Ichihara, secretary general of the JOC, said, ''The low points for the
hardware side were unexpected. We will just have to tough it out at the final
presentation.''
Fifteen Tokyo assembly members, including representatives from the Democratic
Party of Japan which won last Sunday's national elections, will be sent to
Copenhagen for the IOC session. They will be in Denmark from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4
to campaign for Tokyo's bid.
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said, ''Tokyo was evaluated highly with regards to
placing importance on the environment with its compact Olympics concept,
efficient public transport system and financial capability.''
''We will continue to pour all our efforts in until the host city is decided at
the IOC session in October.''
The IOC team visited each of the four candidate cities in the spring and gave
Tokyo a rosy report, but stopped short of laying out in detail how the four-day
inspection will influence their final decision.
Chairwoman Nawal El Moutawakel said the inspectors were most impressed by the
concept of hosting a compact Olympics, in which 97 percent of the venues would
be located within 8 kilometers of the Olympic Stadium.
Amid the global economic downturn, the city has already secured a special 400
billion yen budget for the Games.
Moutawakel said the evaluation team was also convinced of the legacy of the
Olympic Stadium, which would seat 100,000 people, and other proposed venues for
the Games.
Tokyo hosted the first Olympics in Asia in 1964 and Sapporo held the first
winter Olympics in Japan in 1972. Nagano, located in the Japanese Alps, staged
a second winter Games in 1998.
Osaka was the last Japanese city to bid to host the Summer Olympics but it was
eliminated in 2001 in the first round of voting for the 2008 Games, which went
to Beijing.
==Kyodo