Baghdad The Olympic torch relay for the Tokyo 2020 Games ended today, Friday, in an event without an audience due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus (Covid-19), hours before the torch was lit in the Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony.

Kabuki theater actor Kankuro Nakamura, a prominent figure in Japanese performing arts, was the last person to receive the torch and responsible for the symbolic lighting of the torch, as in other similar ceremonies that took place throughout the torch relay in the Asian country due to the epidemic.”

Nakamura was one of 31 “runners” who participated in the event, which was held in front of the Tokyo City Hall, where the torch relay ended without an audience, with the exception of some areas far from the bustling city center, which is currently experiencing a health emergency.

The President of the Japanese Olympic Committee, Yasuhiro Yamashita, and Himari Tori of Japan, who was unable to attend the ceremony in person, sent a robot with a huge screen that broadcasts its full image on the air, equipped with a mechanical arm that carried the torch.

Large numbers of police were deployed near the scene, as dozens of people waited for the Blue Impulse squad of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (Army) to pass.”

Military planes painted the Olympic rings in a cloudy sky over the capital, hours before the opening ceremony.

The Olympic torch relay took place on March 25 from the J-Village complex in Fukushima (northeast), a sports resort that was converted into a workers’ headquarters to contain the nuclear plant disaster in 2011.

The Tokyo 2020 torch relay traveled through 27 prefectures in the Japanese archipelago, although on several occasions its relay was off the highway due to the viral threat, and a total of 10,515 people participated in the 121-day events.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency