Japan bid farewell to Olympic stadium

To be dismantled over 15 months and replaced with a new $1.6b venue.

TOKYO: Japanese sports fans bid an emotional farewell to Tokyo’s National Stadium at the weekend with a lavish ceremony to close the venue before demolition begins in July.

The stadium, built to host the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, will be dismantled over 15 months and replaced on the same site with a new $1.6 billion venue to stage the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Olympics.

A day of spectacular laser shows, fireworks, sports and music brought the curtain down on the 56-year-old stadium, before fans were invited onto the pitch to snap photos, lift replica trophies and loll around barefoot once the proceedings were over.

There were misty eyes among the 36,000-strong crowd as the Olympic flame finally went out for good.

“I was in my first year at Waseda University when the Olympics came to Tokyo, and my college friend Yoshinori Sakai lit the flame,” said 69-year-old Tsuyoshi Hirata on the stadium’s concourse.

“I couldn’t go to the opening ceremony so I watched it on TV. It rained a lot the evening before, but on the day the weather was fantastic. When I saw Sakai light the flame, I felt so happy. I felt like Japan had recovered from the war.”

The 54,000-seat stadium holds a special place in Japanese hearts as the site of the first Olympics to be held in Asia and a symbol of Japan’s post-World War II recovery.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2014.

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