LONDON: World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said on Friday he is confident the Tokyo Olympics will go ahead as planned this year with Covid-19 vaccines giving athletes greater access to training and competitions in the build-up.

Coe said he believes athletes are in a different frame of mind heading into the July 23-Aug 8 Games.

“Firstly, there’s the vaccine and we were a long way away from even thinking about that at this stage last year,” the Briton told Reuters.

“I know at this stage [last year] athletes were beginning to find it really difficult to maintain their training regimes and competitions were beginning to slide off the radar screen. Now they’re having greater access to training and competitions.

“I want to reassure the Japanese people that we take this seriously, with a rigorous focus on the Covid protocols. We’ve staged events with crowds in many places in the world... done it successfully and haven’t produced a great spike in numbers.

“We recognise sport does play a really important part in our communities. People want the Games to take place, the athletes and broadcasters want the Games to take place.”

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2021