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Organizers of the Olympic Games postponed rowing and archery competitions for fear of tropical storm “Nepartak”, whose wind gusts reached 108 km per hour.
The storm, currently about 190 km east of the city of Chios, initially crept towards Tokyo, but has now turned to the north. It is now expected to make landfall early Wednesday in the Miyagi region.
Miyagi and neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture host several Olympic events, one of the few that spectators can see. Still, organizers said the storm would not disrupt events.
“The Mijagy and Ibaraki Games will take place as planned. We hope that the audience will also come,” Masa Takaya, spokesperson for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, told reporters.
Tuesday’s impending storm had already brought rain and wind to part of Japan’s east coast, making conditions for the women’s triathlon in Tokyo less favorable.
Due to the weather, the match started 15 minutes later. During the bicycle race, several athletes slipped on a wet road.
However, conditions were much more favorable for the windsurfing competition being held east of Tokyo’s Chiba prefecture.
Organizers decided to hold the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the men’s and women’s competitions on Tuesday to keep up with the high waves.
Japanese government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told reporters on Tuesday that the storm was moving very slowly and was already bringing strong winds and strong waves along much of the northeast coast.
He warned that torrential rains will continue on Wednesday in the Tokyo area, as well as in the northeastern Tohoku region and the Hokuriku region on the northwest coast, where the storm that hit the land will subside.
Mr. Kato asked the local population to “pay attention to the latest weather information and evacuation instructions.”
Train traffic was restricted in the storm’s potential impact zone, and a non-binding evacuation order was issued in Atamii, where 21 people were killed in a landslide caused by heavy rains earlier this month.
Typhoon season in Japan typically runs from May to October. It reaches its peak in August and September.
In 2019 Typhoon Hagibis struck Japan for hosting the Rugby World Cup at the time. More than 100 people died this time.
