Where the devil was it? Had I somehow missed it? It must be in here somewhere. Oh no, I’m not going to have to plough through the whole thing again, am I?

And then, at the end of the very last paragraph, paragraph 70, on the very last page, page 25, I spotted it: the reference to Tokyo 2020 that I knew must be there.

It had the tortured syntax peculiar to solemn, multilateral documents that are the work of many hands, but there it was.

"As we [continue to collaborate] we look forward to joining with others to ensure we build back better, in particular at the G20 Summit, COP26 [the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference], and CBD15 [the UN Biodiversity Conference] and the UN General Assembly, and reiterate our support for the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 in a safe and secure manner as a symbol of global unity in overcoming COVID-19."

Several points occur relating to this, the final sentence of the Carbis Bay Summit Communiqué, produced by the Group of Seven (G7) - aka the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Olympic and Paralympic hosts Japan - at the end of a three-day gathering on the surfers’ Mecca that is the Cornish north coast.

My first (unworthy) thought was that if the last-page positioning of the all-important Tokyo 2020 reference had induced such a reaction in me, how must it have affected Thomas Bach and his platoon of spin-doctors?

I imagined them sitting in Lausanne waiting anxiously for the document to drop, and then, like me, reading, and reading, and reading…

Beguiling as the image is, I have little doubt that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President would have known well in advance exactly what to expect, and been ready to react, as he and his team duly did, thanking those concerned and describing their words as "a great encouragement".

My second observation was that the language does not commit the G7 to support Tokyo 2020 per se, but to support the event’s staging "in a safe and secure manner".

If the Games end up contributing demonstrably to an increased COVID-19 case-load in Japan or elsewhere, Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga may find life more lonely.

Third, the Olympic Games, as an event, is perfectly structured for national politicians.

Why? Because everybody wins.

With 339 gold medals up for grabs, the leaders of all of these great nations are simply bound to have multiple opportunities to make televised phone calls to national sporting heroes - an especially welcome distraction from more onerous duties in these undeniably difficult times.

The populations in the countries they manage can, similarly, count on at least a handful of morale-boosting Olympic victories to cheer.

Contrast this with single-sport competitions such as the European Football Championship, or Euros.

For all the immense, and intense, interest Euro 2020 is currently generating across my home continent - and, yes, as I write, England is working itself up on cue into its biennial, or in this case triennial, “It’s Coming Home” frenzy - there will be one, and only one, winner.

At the last FIFA World Cup a million years ago in 2018, this was the nation currently stewarded by President Emmanuel Macron - remember that photograph?

But that was also the World Cup which left Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman putting on a brave face in company of Russian President Vladimir Putin while Russia trounced Saudi Arabia 5-0.

To coin a phrase, international football competitions create too many losers.

Fourth, the pandemic has exposed the modern Olympics as the world’s most elaborate fund-raising exercise.

While those of us who follow the Olympic business plainly already knew this, the distractions are normally so dazzling, so uplifting and so numerous that this key purpose fades into the background.

At Tokyo, everyone who attends, athletes included, will be exclusively and single-mindedly doing their job, and evacuating as soon as said job is completed.

Under those conditions, Tokyo 2020 may as easily be viewed as a symbol of how far we still have to go before conquering COVID-19 as of, in the communiqué’s words, "global unity in overcoming" it.

Fifth, much earlier in the communiqué, on page 3, the G7 sets itself the "collective goal" of "ending the pandemic in 2022".

It is an obvious point, but if that is the aim, then Qatar 2022, the next edition of the FIFA World Cup, the only other genuinely global sports mega-event, appears better-placed, or rather better-timed, to act as a symbol of overcoming it.