New dates for Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympic shall be held from July 23 to August 8 in2021 as IOC and Japan decided to postpone the Olympics last week due to thecoronavirus pandemic

However, the Games will keep the "Tokyo 2020" branding despite the year-long delay

The International Olympic Committee and the Japanese organizershave decided to hold the Olympics from July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo next year.The Games were postponed by a year earlier this month due to the coronaviruspandemic that has caused all major sporting events to be cancelled or delayed.

The new dates were arrived on Monday after discussionbetween the International Olympic Committee and local organizers.

President of the Tokyo organising committee, Yoshiro Mori,had earlier hinted that a decision on the new dates for the Summer Games, whichwill be called Tokyo 2020 despite being held in 2021, would be taken on Mondayitself.

It is a huge blow for Japan, which invested $13 billion inthe run-up to the event, and raised $3 billion from domestic sponsors.  It is also for the first time 124 year oldhistory Olympic has been postponed.

Earlier on Monday, the Games' chief executive, Toshiro Muto,said the committee was moving "in the direction" of honouring ticketsbought for the 2020 Games at the rescheduled event, or providing refunds incase of scheduling changes,

"We want to honour the hopes of all those who purchasedthe tickets amid high demand," Muto told a news conference.

The IOC and Japanese government succumbed to intensepressure from athletes and sporting bodies around the world last Tuesday byagreeing to push back the Games because of the coronavirus epidemic, which hasinfected over 630,000 worldwide and caused over 30,000 deaths as of 4PM IST onMarch 30, 2020.