Coronavirus: Team GB Olympic preparation continues with trip to Tokyo

Japan’s Olympic minister has suggested this summer’s Games could be postponed until later in the year

Olympic organisers insist the games will go ahead despite coronavirus fears (Reuters)

British Olympic Association (BOA) chief executive Andy Anson has said preparations for Tokyo 2020 continue despite the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Anson said a planned preparatory trip to Tokyo, with around 55 people travelling, was still set to go ahead as the BOA received information from “every possible source” in a “rapidly evolving situation”.

Meanwhile, uncertainty over Covid-19 was illustrated on Wednesday by Saracens saying Mako Vunipola had not displayed symptoms of the virus and was available to face Leicester this weekend, despite England having ruled him out of their Six Nations clash with Wales after he traveled via Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, Japan’s Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto suggested this summer’s Games could be postponed until later in the year because of the outbreak, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced it remains committed to staging the event as scheduled between 24 July and 9 August.

Anson told BBC Sport: “It is not affecting our plans in any way, in that we are absolutely focused on getting the team to Tokyo for the Olympics in July and everyone is obsessed with that, that is the number one focus.

“At the same time we are getting information from all the relevant bodies, so we have got the most up-to-date information on coronavirus, and it is changing every day as you can see with the news stories.

“But we’re in touch with Public Health England, the World Health Organisation, the IOC, the British government. We are getting information from every possible source so we can make decisions in real time as we go along.

“It’s obviously a rapidly evolving situation, there’s a lot of uncertainty about where it goes. So our assumption is the Olympics is going to happen, but at the same time we are making sure we are aware of what is going on in the world.

“We are going out to Tokyo a week on Saturday for a detailed operational recce, we’re going to take about 55 people, the team leaders from individual sports. We are still going ahead with that, because all of the information we are getting says travel to Japan is safe.

“Of course we’ll take all the precautions we’re being advised to take, we’ll make sensible, smart decisions about where people stay and how they interact, but we are going to do that because we think it is an absolutely vital element of our preparation for Tokyo 2020.”​

PA