Surfing, climbing sites get thumbs up

pulse 19:50 - 07 December 2016

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach appears at a press conference after a meeting with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee on October 19, 2016

The Kujukuri beach in Chiba prefecture will see the first ever Olympic surfing event contested.

Sites for the new sports of surfing, climbing, skateboarding, karate and baseball at the Tokyo Games were approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday.

The Kujukuri beach in Chiba prefecture, 100km to the east of Tokyo, will see the first ever Olympic surfing event contested.

Temporary structures will be built at the Aomi Urban Sports Venue in Tokyo to host the climbing and skateboarding, which along with surfing is part of the IOC's drive to rejuvenate the Games.

For local sports fans, karate is also back on the Olympic roster and bouts will be housed in the revamped Nippon Budokan centre in Tokyo.

The Yokohama stadium built in 1978 will be used to host baseball and softball, which are highly popular in Japan.

The prospect of staging some baseball games at Fukushima, scene of a nuclear incident after a tsunami in 2011, has not yet been ruled out, Tokyo 2020 officials said.