ISHINOMAKI, MIYAGI PREF. – The city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture held a ceremony Sunday to return to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics cauldron after four years of understanding the location’s restoration from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. After eliminating the former National Stadium in Tokyo, the Japan Sport Council supplied the pot to the town in December 2014. The loan period expires this month. The former National Stadium was demolished to create the new National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
During Sunday’s ceremony, the cauldron was lit for the final time in Ishinomaki, and plenty of neighborhood citizens took pictures. Miyagi is one of the three northeastern prefectures that hit the toughest in the 2011 screw-ups, the two others being Iwate and Fukushima. “We made a variety of reminiscences. We’re just grateful (for the cauldron),” stated Kazuo Ito, 72, chairman of the metropolis’s affiliation with sports activities. The association has organized marathons to mark the reconstruction progress from the disaster, with the cauldron being used as the beginning and finishing factors of the marathon.
An internal investigation using newbie boxing’s world frame AIBA has raised critical questions about the judging at the 2016 Rio Olympics, with unique suspicion falling on a French professional, French newspaper Le Monde stated on Monday. Anna Takahashi, a nine-year-antique basic college scholar, said, “It’s sad that the cauldron will disappear from Ishinomaki. However, I want to head and spot the Olympics next year.” The cauldron may be displayed in Iwate Fuk, Ushima, Kawaguchi, and Saitama Prefecture, where it was created before being transported to the brand-new National Stadium.
France basked inside the glow of six boxing medals in Rio, including golds for brilliant heavyweight Tony Yoka and his now-spouse Estelle Mossley. But three days before giving up on the Olympic match, the boxing federation AIBA removed its then govt director Karim Bouzidi from his function because he became accused of favoring fighters from positive international locations, in line with Le Monde’s document.
Le Monde, which conducted the research with Bulgarian newspaper Bulgaria Today, said it had seen the inner AIBA file and emails that showed the frame and became worried Bouzidi had motivated the selections of 5-famous person judges in Olympic bouts. An email from AIBA’s then-president Wu Ching-Ko, dated November 18, 2016, said the body suspected Bouzidi of performing with another senior professional to persuade the judges, particularly those proposing boxers from France and Uzbekistan.
Bouzidi did not reply to AFP’s request for comment on Monday. The head of the French boxing federation, Andre Martin, advised Le Monde: “The consequences in Rio have now not been ‘stolen’; they may be sincere. It’s authentic that we knew Bouzidi; however, we never blackmailed him.” AIBA’s internal investigation found that Bouzidi had the energy to rent the referees and officers for competitions; however, there was no direct proof that these adjustments influenced the outcomes of fights. Bouzidi’s arrival in the senior AIBA ranks coincided with a marketing campaign using France to improve its Olympic boxing results after disappointing performances at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games.
One part of the approach involved setting up a franchise to participate in World Series Boxing, a worldwide opposition aimed at swelling AIBA’s coffers. Kevin Rabaud, the former educator of the French group in the WSB collection, said they had achieved nothing wrong. “We always played through the rules... We organized events in France so that the athletes could grow to be better regarded. If the combat changed into near, it might play in the boxer’s favor if they were more recognized. “In Rio, we got outcomes from our popularity and previous effects.” Boxing is already dealing with the chance of expulsion from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Its inclusion depends on the outcome of an investigation into AIBA via the International Olympic Committee, which has presented the frame with a listing of 41 questions through audit company Deloitte, who will then file returned to the Olympic body. Om “Relations between the IOC and AIBA were hit tough at the 2016 Rio Olympics when 36 officers and referees were suspended amid allegations of solving. Controversial Uzbek businessman Gafur Rakhimov, who the US Treasury Department has connected to “transnational criminal organizations,” stepped down as AIBA President. Rakhimov insists the allegations opposing him are “politically encouraged lies.”
