Olympic flame starts an uncertain journey

Greek gymnast Lefteris Petrounias, Olympic gold medalist and world champion, carries the Olympic torch during the flame handover ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on Thursday. The ceremony took place without spectators as a precaution amid the continuing spread of the coronavirus. The outlook for the Games is unclear as the pandemic gathers pace. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said on Thursday that beating the coronavirus is essential to host a safe and secure Tokyo Olympics but that it was still too early to discuss the timing of a decision on whether the Games should go ahead as scheduled. [Aris Messinis/EPA]