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Osaka, Istanbul allowed to stay in race
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- The IOC on Wednesday decided to let Osaka, Japan, and Istanbul, Turkey, stay in the race for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The two cities were virtually ruled out as potential hosts Tuesday in an official evaluation report assessing the five candidate cities. While Beijing, Toronto and Paris were rated as "excellent" bids, Osaka and Istanbul were deemed unprepared to stage the games. The International Olympic Committee executive board discussed whether to tell the two cities to withdraw from the campaign or let them go forward to the vote in Moscow on July 13. While both cities pledged to stay in the race, some IOC officials believed it would be best for them to drop out rather than spend more money and effort on doomed bids. But the board decided to retain all five candidates. "All five are invited to the session in Moscow," IOC director general Francois Carrard said. "We have a report. The report is clear. There is no reduction." Carrard said each city has until May 25 to file any objections or clarifications on the IOC evaluation report. He did not rule out the option of any of the cities deciding to drop out on their own. "It is up to the cities to draw whatever consequences they want to draw from the report," he said. The responses of the bid cities to the report will be supplied to all IOC members, he said, but the evaluation document itself will not be revised. On Osaka, the IOC report expressed concern about potential traffic problems and financing for the city's planned large scale infrastructure projects. On Istanbul, the panel cited uncertainties about the financing of the games, Turkey's economic crisis and overall planning. Osaka officials contested the findings and said they would provide rebuttals to the IOC. Mayor Takafumi Isomura said the city would clarify the situation over the $28 billion budget for infrastructure, which the commission described as very high and would overburden the city. Takafumi said concerns over whether the city could handle the traffic caused by the Olympics would be put to rest when Osaka hosts the East Asian Games later this month. "We will seek further guidance from the IOC and learn from the report, so that in July we may earn the privilege to host the Olympic Games," Isomura said. Yalcin Aksoy, an official of the Istanbul bid committee, insisted the Turkish city still had a chance. "This decision does in no way mean that the work for Istanbul 2008 is over," he said. "It is obvious that it has decreased chances but this means that we have to work harder to convince that Istanbul is a perfect city given to its cultural heritage." The report listed Beijing, Toronto and Paris on an equal level. The findings reinforced Beijing's status as front-runner.
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