World Athletics chief 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.

The Olympics were postponed in March last year following the start of the pandemic but 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 said.