World Athletics president Sebastian Coe insists it is too early to make call on Tokyo 2020 Olympics, despite coronavirus fears

Shadow of pandemic looms large over Games, as four-time rowing champion Pinsent says it is 'folly' to believe to event can go ahead as planned

An Athlete carries the Olympic torch during the Olympic flame handover ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. Getty

Spyros Capralos, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, with former Japanese swimmer Naoko Imoto. EPA

An empty Panathenaic Stadium. Getty

Former Japanese swimmer Naoko Imoto lights the Olympic flame. EPA

The Olympic torch is lit during the flame handover ceremony in Athens for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. AFP

Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, dressed as an ancient Greek high priestess, lights the Olympic torch during the flame handover ceremony in Athens for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. AP

A Japan's flag is raised next to the Olympic flag. AFP

Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, dressed as an ancient Greek high priestess, during the flame handover ceremony in Athens for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. AP

The Olympic flame. AFP

An athlete by the Japanese flag. AFP

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has insisted that it is too early to make a call on whether the Tokyo 2020 Olympics should be cancelled.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) maintains that the Games could still start as planned on July 24, despite the sporting calendar being decimated across the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Tokyo 2020 organisers received the Olympic flame in a scaled-down handover ceremony in Athens on Thursday, despite the shadow that looms large over the event.

Speaking to the BBC, Coe said: "Let's not make a precipitous decision when we don't have to four months out. [But] If you had to ease that date, you'd have to ease it. It is possible. Anything is possible.

"Events are changing by the hour but it is not a decision that has to be made at the moment. We're trying to manage the situation with the information we have but there is not a great deal of information.

"The temperature in the room with the IOC is, nobody is saying we're going to the Games come what may."

Meanwhile, Four-time Olympic rowing champion Matthew Pinsent believes it is "folly" for the IOC to insist the Games will go ahead.

IOC chairman Thomas Bach said on Tuesday that starting on schedule on July 24 remains the organisation's goal, despite much of the sporting calendar being shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"I think it's the IOC saying we must try and get through if we can, which I have a degree of sympathy with, it just runs counter to what every health authority and government is saying around the world," Pinsent told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We've seen lockdowns across Europe and across Asia at different timescales but this is coming and the idea that the Olympics are going to carry on regardless I think is folly.

"On a global front we have other priorities and I think the Olympics should at the very least be saying we should postpone or indeed just cancel at this stage and we'll talk about postponement later on.

"I just don't think there's much of a choice at this stage. For much of the European countries as well Asian countries, organised sport in any meaningful way has ceased and that's from government advice.

"I don't see there's any way forward for an Olympic athlete to train effectively even as an individual but particularly in a team environment."

Asked why he felt the IOC was insisting the Games would go ahead, former rower Pinsent said: "I think they feel a responsibility to Tokyo.

"We know having hosted in 2012 that seven-year build up is a crescendo of energy and concentration and effort on behalf of the city and on behalf of the nation and the government, everybody takes a pride in it.

"I know that Tokyo have done exactly the same and actually the financial stakes are much higher for the host city than they are for the IOC."