TOKYO:

The marathons and 35km race walks at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo will start half an hour earlier because of health risks posed by unseasonably hot weather, organisers said Thursday.

The energy-sapping race walks are scheduled to open the championships on Saturday morning, with the women's marathon on Sunday and the men's on Monday.

Temperatures have been as high as 33C this week and, with the heatwave set to continue into next week, organisers have been forced to move the road race starts to 7:30 am.

"Due to expected elevated heat conditions that could pose a health and safety risk to competing athletes, all road events on the first three days ... will start 30 minutes earlier than scheduled," said a joint statement from the organisers and World Athletics.

"The s

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