Tokyo 2020 needs foreign help: Coates

TOKYO: International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President John Coates has said 2020 Tokyo Games organizers must seek foreign expertise in sports where the country has little tradition or experience. Obviously in sports in which Japan is not traditionally strong, and doesnt have a lot of experience in, then more liaison work with international federations is necessary, Kyodo News quoted Coates as saying. federations are not going to have to worry too much about karate or judo or baseball or softball — track and field, great experience there, swimming too — but you go to rowing, canoeing, some of those sports, and it is going to need greater reliance on the international federations, in terms of operational planning. At Aprils SportAccord Convention in Bangkok, organizers faced criticism from federations over issues such as competition planning, water pollution and communications. Coates, the chairman of the IOCs Coordination Committee for the 2020 Games, also highlighted transport as a major challenge still remaining for organisers. “The link between, for example, a railway and a venue, that the buses are going to be there when they come off the railway to take them into the venue, all of those type of things, is the planning that still needs to be done,” he added.