A Japanese super-fan who spent £30,000 on tickets for the Tokyo Olympics has been left ‘heartbroken’ by the ban on spectators which dashed his hopes of setting a world report.
Kazunori Takishima, 45, purchased 197 tickets for numerous occasions earlier than home followers had been included within the ban in a bid to guard the occasion from coronavirus.
The businessman has been to each summer season and winter Video games up to now 15 years, and had hoped to interrupt the world report for seeing the best variety of ticketed Olympic occasions in a lifetime.
With the Video games lastly in his residence nation, he snapped up 197 tickets for himself and others.
However then organisers made the choice to bar followers from nearly all Olympic occasions due to coronavirus dangers, and Takishima determined to look at the opening ceremony from exterior the gates of the 68,000-seat stadium as an alternative.
He was on the verge of tears as he watched the opening ceremony exterior the Olympic Stadium on his telephone on Friday, cheering and applauding with a crowd of different followers.
Kazunori Takishima, 45, purchased 197 tickets for numerous occasions earlier than home followers had been included within the ban in a bid to guard the occasion from coronavirus
Takishima holds his self printed tickets for the Video games. He was hoping to interrupt the world report for seeing the best variety of ticketed Olympic occasions in a lifetime on the Tokyo Video games
‘I am relieved that the opening ceremony is being held. I am so glad,’ he instructed AFP. ‘There are such a lot of individuals who love the Olympics.’
He mentioned he froze when he heard the Video games would largely happen with out spectators and even now ‘nonetheless cannot settle for it’s actual.’
‘There’s part of me that also thinks possibly I can go inside venues someway,’ he mentioned. Takishima will get his a reimbursement however feels there isn’t any compensation for shedding the prospect to cheer on Japanese athletes competing on residence turf.
He had deliberate to offer tickets to workers at his companies who hadn’t been to Olympics elsewhere.
‘The Tokyo Video games would have been a possibility for me to point out how nice the Olympics is,’ he mentioned.
‘I can say all of the phrases, however this emotion can’t be absolutely conveyed. It’s a must to go there and see it for your self.’
Takishima’s curiosity in sports activities got here comparatively late, after he attended a figure-skating competitors in Japan in 2005 and located himself amazed by the ability and beauty of the skaters.
His first Olympics was the Turin Winter Video games in 2006, the place strangers within the stands congratulated him after Japanese skater Shizuka Arakawa scooped a gold.
From then on he was hooked, and travelled the globe to attend each Olympics that adopted.
Takishima (pictured) was amongst a crowd of followers watching the opening ceremony from exterior the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Friday evening, he mentioned that he felt folks would have been safer contained in the stadium
Takishima had deliberate to be at 28 occasions this summer season, for a lifetime complete of 134 periods – breaking the report of 128 held by one other super-fan
He had deliberate to be at 28 occasions this summer season, for a lifetime complete of 134 periods – breaking the report of 128 held by one other super-fan.
The attraction, partly, is the inspiration that Olympic athletes present, he mentioned.
‘I face nice obstacles in my work. At these instances, I say to myself, “that is no large deal in comparison with the tears shed by that athlete.”‘
‘I wished my household, pals and my workers to expertise that.’
Takishima mentioned he was offended with organisers and the federal government for failing to discover a option to let spectators into venues safely, particularly given the huge crowds of commuters crossing Tokyo day by day.
‘I’ve all the time been the individual being welcomed by residents of different host cities. Now, it was going to be my flip to welcome them… That is so, so unhappy, it is greater than I can bear,’ he mentioned.
Because the ceremony unfolded within the practically empty stadium in entrance of him, Takishima watched on his smartphone.
‘Are you able to see it? All these empty seats,’ he mentioned to a good friend.
‘So many individuals are right here. They wished to be contained in the stadium, the place they’d have been safer. It’s extremely unhappy.’
Pictured: Takishima and one other Japanese fan at a wrestling venue throughout the 2016 Summer time Olympic Video games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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