Osaka looks to future after defeat

Keiko Kanai

Osaka officials said on Friday they had not given up hope of staging a Summer Olympics in the future, despite the Japanese city's early exit in the voting for the 2008 Games.

Osaka was eliminated after winning just six of the 102 first-round votes, way short of the 44 votes secured by Beijing, which beat out Toronto by 56 to 22 in the second and final round of the International Olympic Committee ballot in Moscow.

Paris and Istanbul also fared much better than Osaka.

"It was unexpected to finish last, but when Mayor (Takafumi) Isomura gets back on Sunday we'll discuss the possibility of bidding for the Games again," Osaka's vice-mayor Toshio Dozaki told reporters.

"Osaka is aiming to be an international city which can welcome visitors from all over the world. For that reason, we definitely want to get the Games eventually," he said.

Some 2,000 bid committee officials and local residents who gathered at a venue near Osaka castle to watch the IOC announcement via a live satellite link, were initially unaware that the Japanese city had lost in the first round of voting.

CONFUSION

When officials switched from Osaka's bid presentation to proceedings in Moscow, there was confusion at why Osaka was no longer on the screen behind IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Realisation soon set in, however, and a hush descended over the room, while the announcement of Beijing's successful bid was greeted in a subdued manner.

This was in stark contrast to the traditional Japanese drums and dancing that had preceded the official announcement from Moscow.

Asked why Osaka had failed to mount a serious challenge to the favourite, Beijing, Dozaki said the 1999 rule change banning IOC members from visiting bidding cities had been a major obstacle.

"The rules changed, which made it tougher. We ran a fair bid, but couldn't quite raise the profile of Osaka enough," he said.

Osaka's early defeat ended a 10-year effort to convince the IOC, as well as the Japanese Olympic Committee, that the city could create a "sports paradise" on three artificial islands in Osaka Bay.

The IOC evaluation committee, which visited Japan in February, raised questions about the city's transportation and financing for the Olympics, severely denting the city's chances.

Osaka officials argued that the IOC had got their sums wrong, but it was too little too late.

Osaka beat out Yokohama in 1997 for the right to bid for the 2008 Olympics.

Tokyo hosted the first Olympics in Asia in 1964 and Sapporo staged the 1972 Winter Games. Nagano, located between Tokyo and Sapporo, also hosted the Winter Olympics in 1998.

Isomura said earlier this week that it was not the winning but the taking part that counted in the bidding for 2008.

"Of course we want to win, but the real aim is to contribute to world peace through the Olympic movement," he said.