The men's and women's Tokyo Olympics marathons could be held the same day in Sapporo where it should be cooler

It was recently learned that based on the premise of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathons and race walks being moved to Sapporo as a safeguard against hot temperatures, the IAAF and other involved parties have proposed two plans to compress the five events into three days.

Both plans call for the men's and women's marathons to be held the same day. In the first plan the men's and women's 20 km race walks would be held Aug. 7, with the men's 50 km race walk held Aug. 8. Originally scheduled for Aug. 2, the women's marathon would be held the same day as the men's marathon on Aug. 9.

In the second plan, the five events would be held either July 27 to 29 or 28 to 30. The men's and women's marathons would be held the same day, but which day they would be held has not been specified. Under this plan the road events would take place prior to the start of track and field competition at Tokyo's new Olympic Stadium on July 31, making it possible to avoid having athletics events happening in Tokyo and Sapporo simultaneously.

The IAAF has asked participating national and regional federations to express their preference between the two proposals by Oct. 31.

posted Friday November 1st