When the World Athletics Championships kick off in Tokyo this weekend, the host stadium will be in the spotlight as much as the star athletes.
Originally built in 2019 ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, National Stadium was robbed of its original purpose when the COVID-19 pandemic first delayed the Games from 2020 to 2021, then resulted in them being held behind closed doors without spectators.
“In 2020 and 2021, there was a shared feeling among people involved in athletics, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and many others that we wanted truly large numbers of people to come and watch athletics, the main sport of the Olympics, at National Stadium,” organizing committee head Takashi Takeichi said at a news briefing last week. “Since such an opportunity unfortunately did not happen, we would like to make good on that.”
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