TOKYO, Feb 17 — The decision by Rome to drop out of the running to host the 2020 Olympic Games has instilled new confidence in the bid put forward by Tokyo.

The Italian capital announced Tuesday that it was pulling out of the race to host the Olympics because the national government had declined to provide financial backing for the event.

Rome had been considered one of the favourites to host the Games and its withdrawal improves Tokyo’s chances. The Japanese capital is now up against Doha, Madrid, Istanbul and Baku, in Azerbaijan.

Rome’s decision was announced the day after Tokyo formally submitted its bid for the Games at the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland. The deadline for submissions was Wednesday.

Tokyo was unsuccessful in its bid to host the 2016 Games, which went to Rio de Janeiro, and the organisers are confident their proposal for a “compact” Games, with all the facilities within an eight-kilometre radius, as well as the extensive use of existing venues instead of constructing entirely new ones, will be in its favour when a decision is made.

Fully 40 per cent of the venues will be renovated existing structures, including include the Budokan hall and the Tokyo Big Site convention centre, to the east of the city.

The bid is also proposing that some of the events, including a number of the football matches, will be played in venues in the north-east of the country, the hardest hit by last year’s disasters.

“We have learned valuable lessons from our previous bid, which are evident in these improved technical plans,” Tsunekazu Takeda, the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, said when the bid was lodged.

“This is a plan that will be a lasting legacy for 50 years,” Takeda told reporters. “I think we can be proud of what we have submitted.

“Tokyo’s plans received high marks even in the last bid,” he added. “We made the improvements we needed to make and are convinced that we have what it takes to beat the rival cities.”

Takeda said the bid committee and the Japanese people are “truly honoured and excited” to submit the application to host the Games, which are being put forward as a symbol of the nation’s recovery from the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.

The IOC is scheduled to examine the five candidates that remain and decide in May whether any fail to meet their specifications and should be cut from the list. A final decision on the host will be announced at a meeting of the committee in Buenos Aires in September 2013. — AFP-Relaxnews