Medal events and indoor sporting events to take place during the day despite the warning of hard storms on Sunday evening at the Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony.
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Japan’s weather agency warns of the various risks
Strong gusts, huge waves, and the potential of landslides and floods along the eastern coast will be present from Saturday afternoon to Sunday, when Tropical Storm Mirinae is predicted to pass over the capital, according to Japan’s weather agency.
Despite the warnings, Tokyo 2020 organising committee spokesman Masa Takaya tells reporters that they are following the updates on the weather reports and calmly paying attention to them at the moment.
“It is necessary to inform you objectively so that we can avoid excessive overreaction,” he says.
Medal events including water polo and rhythmic gymnastics will take place at indoor venues in the city during the day on Sunday evening at the closing ceremony.
Last week’s reschedule due to the weather
Game organisers were forced to reschedule rowing and archery events due to the separate storm that hit last week in Japan.
Despite the situation of last week’s storm, they brought forward the surfing finals to take advantage of the strong winds.
On Friday, Mirinae was around 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Minamidaito island, near the southern archipelago of Okinawa and it was moving east, packing gusts of up to 108 kilometres per hour (67 miles per hour).
Japan’s history with typhoons
In Japan, typhoon season runs from May to October, peaking in August and September.
According to sources, certain rowing and archery events had to be rescheduled last week, but the surfing finals were moved up to take advantage of powerful waves.
Mirinae was about 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Minamidaito island on Friday, in Okinawa’s southern archipelago.
Furthermore, Typhoon Hagibis slammed into Japan in 2019, as the country was hosting the Rugby World Cup.
