tokyo fake cheers empty seats and the sound of pounding feet welcome to the covidera tokyo olympics which japan seems determined to hold at all costsan athletics test event brought home the reality of hosting an olympics during the pandemic with athletes competing in a muted atmosphere and excitement hard to musterfootstrikes echoed around tokyos 68000capacity olympic stadium during sundays track events with recorded crowd noises reaching a crescendo as the runners approached the finisha fanfare of music greeted the end of the race before the runners quickly departed down the tunnel leaving a smattering of media and officials in the otherwise empty stadiumits weird running in a stadium with no fans us sprinter justin gatlin said after winning the mens 100mit feels almost like a time trial or kind of like an intrasquad meetthe athletics meet one of a series of test events taking place in tokyo involved more than 400 competitors only nine of them from overseasthe atmosphere could be similar at this summers coronavirusdelayed games with overseas fans already barred and organisers set to decide in june how many domestic spectators can attend if any at allalthough the test events are unusual they lend weight to the argument that the olympics can be held despite the pandemic which has left tokyo and other areas under a state of emergencythere was more noise outside the stadium on sunday with around 100 people protesting against an olympics that polls show a majority of japanese opposecovid19 infection numbers are high in tokyo and osaka with many severe cases said protestor takashi sakamotoi would like the money for the games to be used in hospitals instead he told afpa new poll on monday by the yomiuri shimbun daily found 59 percent of respondents want to cancel the postponed 2020 games which will open on july 23 the poll did not offer the option of a further postponementa separate survey by the tbs television channel found 37 percent back cancellation while 28 percent want the games delayed againjapans prime minister yoshihide suga was forced on the defensive on monday insisting in parliament he has never put the olympics first and his priority remains the lives and health of the japanese peoplean online petition urging the games be cancelled has gathered more than 315000 signatures since last wednesday but games organisers insist the megaevent can be held safely with strict virus rulesi felt beyond safe said gatlin ive been tested every day either saliva or nasal swab every morningthe bubble has been very successful the only time ive seen the outside is when we get on the bus to go to the trackthe rules were similarly strict at the diving world cup the previous weekend which featured more than 200 divers from almost 50 countries somersaulting in silence with no fans presentweve been spitting in tubes a lot said british diver tom daleythere were some frustrations with germanys sport director lutz buschkow describing the restrictions as slightly claustrophobicthe most disappointing thing is that