Related News
Baseball chief scoffs at Fukushima health risks
Print Edition
STAGING games in Fukushima for the 2020 Olympics will not present any health risk to players, the president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation said yesterday.
Tokyo Olympic organizers are planning to hold part of the baseball and softball competition in the region devastated by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.
The WBSC held an under-15 baseball tournament in Fukushima, about 240 kilometers north of Tokyo, this year. Cuba beat Japan to defend its title.
“From the data I have received, the situation is not dangerous in Fukushima,” WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari said in Tokyo after meeting with Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori. “The situation is fine now so I don’t think we will have any problems three years on.”
Holding Olympic events in the disaster-affected areas could send a powerful message of reconstruction.
Fraccari is scheduled to visit Fukushima today for an inspection tour of several proposed stadiums. “We just staged the under-15 tournament in Fukushima and I know how passionate the people there are about baseball. The main issues for me are the facilities and the schedule.”
The IOC is expected make a final decision on the location in Fukushima Prefecture at its December 6-8 executive board meeting.
Fukushima City, Koriyama and Iwaki are the prefecture’s candidates to host baseball and softball, which are returning to the Olympics for the first time since Beijing 2008.
The 2020 Tokyo Games will come nine years after a massive earthquake struck northeastern Japan and unleashed a tsunami that triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
