Tokyo Olympics: IOC chief 'very confident' spectators can attend delayed Games

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has said he is "very, very confident" that spectators will be able to attend next year’s Tokyo Olympics, describing the postponed Games as the "light at the end of the tunnel".

Bach, who is visiting Japan for the first time since he and the then Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, agreed in March to delay Tokyo 2020 by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, told reporters that he and Abe’s successor, Yoshihide Suga, were "totally aligned" in their determination to make the event a success.

"I explained that we are making various considerations on the premise of having spectators and agreed with president Bach to work closely together towards realising a safe and secure Olympics," Suga said, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Japan allows a certain number of fans into baseball and football stadiums, and last week hosted a one-day gymnastics meet involving four countries where organisers tested several Covid-19 countermeasures.