From best prepared to postponed: Tokyo 2020's rocky road

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike speaking during a press conference after a meeting of the Headquarters for measures against for the Coronavirus Disease at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office on Monday (March 30). The Tokyo 2020's new date is now July 23, 2021. - AFP

TOKYO: Olympic officials regularly lauded Tokyo as the best prepared host city they had seen. But no one could have planned for the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic that has forced an unprecedented postponement of the 2020 Games.

And while organisers won praise, a plagiarism scandal, corruption charges and budget woes all clouded the horizon even before the virus outbreak threatened the Games.