The Tokyo Olympics will not go ahead this year and neither should they.

No matter what IOC boss Thomas Bach continues to say, it would be both irresponsible and remiss to think that with Covid still rampant in that country they can, in just a few months, welcome over 200 countries into theirs and conduct this event  without problems or risk to the athletes entered.

As hard as it might be to comprehend given the normality and freedom of life we are enjoying, the rest of the world outside NZ is still living in a straitjacket. There are no music festivals with 30,000 folk camping cheek by jowl, no mixing and mingling freely in bars, no mass of spectators allowed at sporting events.

Tokyo right now is riddled with Covid. Their professional rugby comp, scheduled to start last weekend, has been put back 'til sometime next month because of a viral outbreak and yet in just over four months they're meant to welcome in over 10,000 athletes plus as many officials and extras from every other corner of the globe? Nonsense, utter nonsense. Yet according to Mr Bach everything  is A-OK, they're on track, full steam ahead with no need for a Plan B . Of course there isn't. 

The IOC is motivated by one thing and one thing only - money. It's not glory or history or legacy, it's lolly. Surely the athletes must be nervous about going? And then there's the rampant unchecked drug cheating polluting almost every event that the IOC now seems powerless to deal with.

 If you've got anyone Russian in your comp why would you even bother taking the start line? The situation is almost farcical yet the IOC continue to act like they have it all completely under control. I repeat: the Games will not be going ahead as planned for this July. Hopefully Covid will do what the IOC won't.