Table tennis player Ai Fukuhara will replace former Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima as one of the five Olympic torch runners selected by the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) and Tokyo metropolitan government, sources said Friday.
The 15-year-old Fukuhara, who will represent Japan in women's table tennis in Athens this summer, has been chosen to run in the June 6 relay because Nagashima, the manager of the national baseball team, has yet to recover from a stroke he suffered early last month.
JOC chairman and former equestrian rider Tsunekazu Takeda will also likely be among those named to the five-member slot given to JOC and Tokyo.
Other candidates include speed skater Hiroyasu Shimizu, Daichi Suzuki, a gold medal winner in the men's backstroke at the Seoul Olympics, and Mikako Kotani, a bronze medalist in synchronized swimming in Seoul.
The 120-member relay, featuring some 80 runners selected by Olympic sponsors, will start at the Daiba area near Tokyo Bay on the morning of June 6 and will head to the plaza in front of the Tokyo metropolitan government building. The flame returns to Athens after the 65-day journey through five continents.