Without runners, Olympic torch relay gets off to muted start in Tokyo

The Tokyo segment of the Olympic torch relay started with a small-scale ceremony on Friday, a day after organizers decided to stage the games without spectators at almost all venues due to a surge in coronavirus infections.Two weeks before the opening of the Olympics, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike marked the start of the 15-day section of the relay, most of which was taken off of public roads as the Japanese capital struggles with spiking COVID-19 infections."Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus, the flame was sometimes impossible to be carried on public roads. But by overcoming the difficu…READ FULL ARTICLE