Asia Olympics chief urges Tokyo to keep bidding

Asia's Olympic chief has encouraged Tokyo in its anticipated second straight bid for the Summer Olympics after the South Korean resort of Pyeongchang won the 2018 Winter Games at the third attempt. "If Tokyo is serious about the bid, however the result, we have to keep fighting for this bid," Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said Wednesday. "If we bid once, suspend the second and go for the third, this is a weak point," he told Japan's Kyodo news agency as he prepared to preside over OCA meetings in Tokyo. Sheikh Ahmad was expected to be re-elected to a sixth term since 1991 at the OCA general assembly on Thursday. "We have to continue, like the situation of Korea and Pyeongchang who went three times," he said. Pyeongchang, bidding for the Winter Olympics for the third straight time, was awarded the right to host the 2018 event last week, beating Munich, Germany, and the French town of Annecy. In 2009, Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago lost to Rio de Janeiro in the race to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. But Tokyo's governor Shintaro Ishihara has repeatedly said his city has ambitions to stage another Summer Olympics in 2020 -- which would be its first since 1964 -- as a boost to Japan's recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. "With good marketing, with good lobbying, Tokyo is Tokyo and it will have a good chance," Sheikh Ahmad said. "It's very important to Asia that we believe in the bid, and it's very important to keep working on the success of that." Asia has hosted three Summer Olympics -- Tokyo (1964), Seoul (1988) and Beijing (2008). Pyeongchang was Asia's third Winter Games host after two Japanese cities -- Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998).