Tokyo 2020 archery venue unveiled

The archery venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games was officially unveiled on Sunday, becoming the first of the Games’ new venues to be completed.

Yumenoshima Park Archery Field, located on a former landfill site, was set for completion in May.

Other than the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic and Paralympic athletes village, Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) is building eight new competition venues for the Games.

The rest of the venues will be refurbished pre-existing facilities.

The archery field, with a covered grandstand and warm-up area shaped like an archer’s bow, is the first of the new venues to be completed.

The venue was opened by Princess Tsuguko, who is a patron of the All Japan Archery Federation, alongside Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda, who will step down from the role in June amid a corruption probe despite denying any wrongdoing, was also in attendance.

Both Princess Tsuguko and Koike spoke of the desire to leave a lasting legacy post-Games.

‘Preparations has been made since 2016 to aim to create an appropriate venue to receive top athletes for Tokyo 2020,’ said Princess Tsuguko.

‘This archery field will be the centre of Japanese archery tournaments and workshops after Tokyo 2020. I hope that archery will be a tool for people to socialise.’

Double Olympic medalist Hiroshi Yamamoto and other Japanese archers fired arrows through balloons and archers from various local clubs were then allowed to use the facilities for the very first time.

In February, construction at all new venues, including the Aquatics Centre, was found to be on schedule.