Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mclmuod3bh7yu5m/VRP32053.mp4?dl=0
Footage shows Thai athletes running with their country’s flag as part of preparations for the Olympics planned for Tokyo, Japan, this summer.
Organisers handed the flag to the people who were waiting to join the event including singers, actors, civil servants and locals and each of them ran together while carrying it for one kilometre on May 13.
Khon Kaen Governor Somsak Jangtrakul said the flag would pass through a further 35 provinces before the start of the Games on July 23.
Somsak said: ‘The event’s called Flag of Nation. The participants will come from Phetchabun and enter Khon Kaen before heading to Nakhon Ratchasima.
‘A one-kilometre run will take place every day until the start of the games. The flag will travel a total of 4,606 kilometres, which is the distance between Bangkok and Tokyo.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The country is currently battling a forth wave of the virus and polls show that 80 per cent of residents oppose the Games being held.