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The delayed Tokyo Olympics torch relay finally got under way in
Japan on Thursday a year later than planned and despite an ongoing global pandemic.
The 121-day relay signals the start of the build-up to this summer’s Games, which were postponed from 2020 by coronavirus.
The torch was lit during a ceremony in Fukushima and will be carried by 10,000 runners across Japan before the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the Games’ opening ceremony on 23 July.
But, as expected, this year’s torch relay will be one with a difference.
Thousands of people have lined the streets for the event in previous years but, because of virus restrictions, spectators were banned from this year’s launch ceremony.
A small number of fans were allowed to watch the relay’s second section, but face masks were compulsory and cheering banned in an
attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19.
It was earlier announced last week that international fans will not be allowed to travel to the Games.
Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hashimoto said she hoped the Olympic flame
would serve as “a ray of light at the end of the darkness”.
“This little flame never lost hope and it waited for this day like a cherry
blossom bud just about to bloom,” she said, speaking at the launch
ceremony.
Vincent Paul
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