New dates for Tokyo Olympics confirmed

The Tokyo 2021 Olympics will be held between July 23 and August 8 next year.

The International Olympic Committee today confirmed the change of dates today following a meeting of their Organising Committee.

The IOC announced last week that the Tokyo Games, which were due to begin in July of this year, were postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These new dates give the health authorities and all involved in the organisation of the Games the maximum time to deal with the constantly changing landscape and the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” the statement read.

“The new dates, exactly one year after those originally planned for 2020 also have the added benefit that any disruption that the postponement will cause to the international sports calendar can be kept to a minimum, in the interests of the athletes and the international federations.

“Additionally, they will provide sufficient time to finish the qualification process. The same heat mitigation measures as planned for 2020 will be implemented.”

Irish boxing will have at least one athlete between the ropes, as Ireland captain Brendan Irvine punched his ticket for the 32nd Olympiad on St Patrick’s Eve in London.

The London qualifiers were postponed three days into the competition because of the coronavirus with 16 of the 77 Olympic places claimed by male flyweights, including Irvine, and featherweights.

The IOC Task Force for Boxing is expected to announce the new dates and venues for the postponed qualifiers in the coming weeks.

Nine Irish boxers will be in the mix when the European qualifiers recommence.

As things stand, the African and Asia/Oceania qualifiers are completed along with the partially completed European event.

Scheduled for Buenos Aires this month, the Americas qualifiers were postponed because of the coronavirus as were the final world qualifiers in Paris.