The decision to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been welcomed by former Sports Minister and Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park project lead Richard Caborn.

The organisers of the Games, due to begin on 24 July, have agreed to a one-year postponement of the event due to the global Coronavirus pandemic.

“We welcome the move. It is the right decision for the sportsmen and sportswomen, including many who train at our facilities on Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.” said Mr Caborn.

“Clearly new plans for those athletes will have to be made. Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, further down the line, will have a big part to play in the changed build-up to the Games in 2021.”

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park was established in the wake of the 2012 London Games to deliver an Olympic legacy through the four themes of enhanced sport participation, improved facilities for the local community, economic regeneration and the creation of an improved environment. The innovative multi-million-pound science park in the Attercliffe area of the city provides world-class sports, education, health and leisure facilities.

On the 60-acre Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park are the English Institute of Sport Sheffield (EISS), iceSheffield, Altitude, Don Valley Bowl, the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC), Oasis Academy Don Valley, UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park,  as well as a number of other facilities.

The newly opened Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) is set to create innovations that will ‘improve the health of the nation’

Mr Caborn added: “Through its current facilities like the AWRC and the proposed Centre for Child Health Technology,  Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park will help in the period after Coronavirus, improving people’s quality of life.”