Abe was honest afterwards in explaining how Tokyo had decided that they needed to address the Fukushima issue immediately before the presentation.

"We had thought about the philosophy of our bid and realised that it was appropriate," he said.

"However we did not have that much time amongst our other themes so I referred to it briefly and then went into more detail when questions were asked about it.

"I explained about the contaminated water and that it is only blocked in a specific area.

"The area is totally safe and we welcome anyone to Japan to show them that."

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could have offered a late boost to Tokyo's 2020 chances with his addressing of the Fukashima issue



While a Japanese athlete has never failed a drugs test during either an Olympic or a Paralympic Games this is something which has negatively affected both Turkey and Spain.

Through Istanbul's message of "zero tolerance" and Madrid's positive reaction to the Operación Puerto scandal both were confident that they had addressed the issue well enough.

Madrid faced an additional worry due to the fact that their presentation had cut out in the media room and was not seen by the wider world.

However the former double Olympic sailing gold medalist and international chief executive of Madrid 2020, Theresa Zabell, showed her lighter said by smilingly offering to repeat her whole presentation in the press room afterwards.

Despite these glitches another speaker in Crown Prince Felipe was confident that the doping question and other issues was well received as he explained that "despite being anxious and nervous about delivering" he "felt that the bid today was very successful." 

This was a message repeated by the chairman of Istanbul's bid Hasan Arat who explained, in his typically bubbly way, that "all of the questions from IOC members were straightforward because we were so open and honest."

"This is such a strong team because at every level we worked with government, NGO's (Non Governmental Organisations), business leaders and public," he added.

"This bid is a fantastic bid so we were very happy to answer every question."

Abe's Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not speak at the press conference but Istanbul 2020 hope his 17 hour journey from the G20 summit in St Petersburg will have been worth it.


IOC members loitering afterwards were unsurprisingly reluctant to reveal their preferred choices but all expressed how impressed they were with each of the presentations.

Aruba's Nicole Hoevertsz described all three as magnificent and an important final part of her decision process.

"I read the reports, talk to the people, get an impression and then use the final presentation to confirm" she explained before adding that "my opinion has not changed."

This was a message reinforced by New Zealand member Barry Maister, who found the presentations "much sharper and well done than in previous years" with the focus through the eyes of the youth one particular highlight.

In relation to Fukushima he thought Prime Minister Abe answered his question on the incident much better the second time around.

"I think every cities got an issue and we expect answers on these and I think the second time he gave all the assurance that he could," he said.

The true impact of this and other issues, and the true feelings of the IOC members, will only however be known in a concrete sense when the winner is announced later this afternoon.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]