Australia's Coates, the man in the middle stuck with a muddle

FILE PHOTO: International Olympic Committee member John Coates attends the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 135th Session in Lausanne, Switzerland, January 10, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

SYDNEY/MEBOURNE (Reuters) - The surest sign that the tide had turned definitively against plans to press ahead with the Tokyo Games this year might have come on Monday when the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC)instructed its athletes to prepare for 2021.

The decision was made after a meeting of the AOC board chaired by John Coates, which unanimously agreed that restrictions introduced to contain the coronavirus made it impossible to send a team to Tokyo in July.