Coronavirus hits Tokyo Marathon, thousands lose money on ban
Only elite runners allowed; organizers offer no refunds to other runners
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TOKYO — Tokyo Marathon organizers drastically reduced the number of participants for this year's race on Monday out of fear of the spread of the virus coming from China.
The general public is being barred from the race on March 1. It will now be limited to a few hundred elite participants, organizers said in a brief statement.
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“We cannot continue to launch the event within the scale we originally anticipated and we regret to inform you the following: The Tokyo Marathon 2020 will be held only for the marathon elites and the wheelchair elites,” organizers said.
The announcement prompted outrage on social media as race organizers declined to offer more than 30,000 entrants refunds.
The entry fee for the race is $165 dollars (or 18,200 yen). The race attracts runners from all over the world who often sign up for the race through travel packages, some of which begin at $1750 for four days, but does not include airfare.
Recently, the race pumped more than $250 million into the Japanese economy.
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The Tokyo Marathon is the city's annual race and not to be confused with the Olympic marathon that will take place during the 2020 Tokyo Games. Those races are to be held in the northern city of Sapporo.
The marathon is the latest large sports event to be impacted by the virus. Almost all sports events in China over the next few months have been called off, including next month's world indoor track and field championships and a Formula One race in April.
The cancellations in China have a domino effect on Olympic qualifying, both in China and elsewhere, and muddle the picture for thousands of hopeful Olympians, families, and their travel plans.
The Tokyo Marathon was expected to attract about 38,000 participants. Only one death in Japan has been attributed to the coronavirus. The latest death toll in mainland China is 1,770.
Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics and the International Olympic Committee have said repeatedly they will not cancel or postpone the games and are following the advice of the World Health Organization.
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“Certainly the advice we're receiving externally from the WHO is that there's no case for any contingency plans or canceling the games or moving the games,” John Coates, the head of an IOC inspection team, said Friday in Tokyo.
The Olympics open on July 24 with about 11,000 athletes participating. About 7.8 million tickets are available for Olympic events, which draw hundreds of thousands of tourists. There are another 2.3 million tickets for the Paralympics.