Guests pose for photos during the Grand Opening Ceremony of Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 24, 2020. Tokyo Aquatics Centre will be used for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic swimming games. The ceremony, which was planned to be held in March this year, was postponed due to the COVID-19. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)TOKYO, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Tokyo Aquatics Centre, which will host the Olympic swimming and diving events, was unveiled here on Saturday, eight months after it was completed.
The venue, with a capacity of 13,000, was announced to open at a grand ceremony attended by Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto and Yasuhiro Yamashita, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
The Tokyo Aquatics Centre, situated in the northeast of Tokyo and about seven kilometers away from the city center, was the last of the eight new permanent venues to be unveiled.
It was completed in February and was originally scheduled to be unveiled in March but the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the opening.
Koike said Tokyo expects to "received more athletes and spectators" next year because the COVID-19 situations has been "stable" in Japan.
Japan's five-time Olympic diver Ken Terauchi, who became the first member of the Japanese Olympic team to test positive for COVID-19 in August, showed that he has fully recovered from the illness as he performed a three-meter synchronized springboard routine with teammate Sho Sakai.
The duo finished seventh in last year's world championships and secured a berth for the Tokyo Olympic Games.