Sharjah24 - AFP: The Olympic flame arrived in Tokyo on Friday but the public was kept away from a low-key welcoming ceremony over coronavirus fears, after a "heartbreaking" announcement that spectators would be banned from most Games events.
On a rainy morning two weeks before the opening of the biggest sports tournament since the pandemic began, the flame was brought on stage in a lantern and handed to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.
Despite disruption to the nationwide torch relay, "it has been transmitted as a way of hope," Koike said.
Tokyo 2020 organisers and government officials on Thursday night announced their decision to bar fans from Olympic events in the capital, which will be under a virus emergency throughout the Games.
It means the pandemic-postponed Games will be the first to take place largely behind closed doors, with a handful of competitions taking place outside the capital.
The torch relay began in March and was meant to build excitement for the Olympics, but it has been pulled from public roads in many places, including Tokyo, to prevent crowds spreading the virus.
Before the flame arrived on Friday morning, five male trumpet players dressed in suits played a rousing melody under a gazebo to shelter them from the drizzle, with only journalists and officials looking on.
The stands were empty at the Komazawa Olympic Park stadium in the capital's southeastern suburbs, which was used in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, seen as Japan's great return to the world stage after World War II.
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