KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — Malaysia will still send athletes to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo despite fears over the Covid-19 outbreak.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said there had been no notification from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on any postponement or cancellation of the Games, scheduled for July 24 to Aug 9.
“So far we have not received any directive from IOC about the postponement or cancellation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. So, we will send athletes as planned,” he told Bernama here today.
IOC member Dick Pound, a former champion swimmer from Canada, was quoted by an international news agency yesterday as expressing concern over the possibility of the games being postponed or cancelled because of the virus outbreak.
The coronavirus, which began in Wuhan, China, last December, was reported to have killed four people and infected 130 others in Japan.
The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro were staged as scheduled although some participating countries had expressed concerns over the spread of the Zika virus in the South American country then. — Bernama
