Wednesday 1 April 2020 16:40, UK
Lord Coe has admitted some athletes may be at a disadvantage at the Tokyo Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic, but has refused to rule out the Games going ahead as planned.
The president of World Athletics has held discussions with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as they attempt to remain on track for the scheduled start on July 24, but has acknowledged that may leave athletes from countries hit by Covid-19 later than others unable to compete on an equal basis.
Great Britain's heptathlon world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson is among a number of athletes to question IOC advice to prepare "as best they can" amid ongoing restrictions affecting their training schedules.
Coe told The Times: "Recent evidence suggests China seems to be pulling out of [coronavirus], but if you are living in Europe and you are an Italian distance runner and you are confined to your house, that is a massive challenge.
"Our sport has always been about fairness and a level playing field, so we shouldn't feel ashamed to set that as our ambition. The reality is that may not be possible in every case, but we want to do what we can to drill down on that.
"Some are not able to train properly, some are not able to access public tracks or indoor facilities and we are working to try to help them find these facilities.
"We don't want athletes that are coming on stream for competition that have not been able to train for a couple of months while others may have come through it slightly earlier and are back in the mainstream.
"My focus is where there are specific pockets of difficulty. Different countries have very different public health restrictions. If you are living in Italy, France or Spain, it's very complicated at the moment.
"I don't know, but there is an assumption that in the UK, we may be in a lockdown. Some countries that are coming into this later are going to be dealing with these issues closer to Tokyo."
IOC chairman Thomas Bach insisted on Tuesday that July remains the organisation's focus, and asked if it would be wrong to write that off, Coe said: "Yes, I do think that."
