Five cities presented their bids for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games at the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly in Moscow, Russia. All five Baku (Azerbaijan), Doha (Qatar), Istanbul (Turkey), Madrid (Spain) and Tokyo (Japan), tried making an early impression before an audience of about 1200, including 50 International Olympic Committee (IOC) members. Despite the short presentations, the standard was impressively high, which is a sign of what high standards there is amongst these bidding cities. The presentations were the only opportunity the cities have to present their plans publicly before the IOC's ruling Executive Committee meets on May 23 in Quebec, Canada, to draw up its shortlist. Doha and Baku both were eliminated at the first stage of the bidding for 2016, earned praise for their submission this time round. Doha managed to show three videos into the presentation and were the only city to announce a new initiative - a centre to help develop women's sports participation in the Middle East. Sheikh Tamim, the President of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), said "this is a bid on behalf of the entire Middle East and North Africa region. It is not a single effort of Qatar, but one of a region whose population will reach 700 million people by 2020. "We want to utilise the 2020 Games to create new sporting and commercial opportunities for the Olympic Movement, and develop sporting programmes and venues that benefit an entire region," He further added. Sheikh Tamim also sought to address head-on the problem of hosting the Games in a country where the temperature is often over 100 degrees. He proposed for the possible Doha 2020 Games to take place from 2-18 of October and the Paralympic Games from the 4-15 of November. These dates were chosen to directly address and deal with the issue of temperature. Istanbul dealt with the issue about the speculation that Turkey might also want to host football's European Championships in 2020, this would get them to withdraw their Olympic bid. Ugur Erdener, the President of the National Olympic Committee of Turkey (NOCT) said, Nearly 90 per cent of people in Istanbul and throughout the country support our bid. If Istanbul is given this opportunity, we will demonstrate to you that Turkey has no greater goal than delivering spectacular Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020. Baku, meanwhile, continued to demonstrate that the quality of their bid has improved from four years ago when they were eliminated at the Applicant City stage without much thought by the IOC. "Baku is a vibrant city; a visionary mixture of ancient and modern architecture, a rich palette of cultures and generations of history," said Mehriban Aliyeva, Azerbaijan's First Lady. Tokyo, widely considered to be the "safe" bet in the race, produced a solid performance that also included possibly the most memorable line of the day from Masato Mizuno, the chief executive. Flashing a slide of Tokyo's technical plan on to the screen, which they claim includes several significant changes from their previous bid for 2016, he said: "We kept the best and improved the rest." Madrid, bidding for a third consecutive time having narrowly missed out on 2012 and 2016, did more than half of their presentation in Spanish. They also boasted during a video of Spain being a "founder member of the Euro" - which few people in the audience seemed to think was something to be proud of, bearing in mind Europe's current economic crisis. Spain has been badly affected by the crisis. However, this was not mentioned in the presentation and Madrid concentrated on their claim that they already have 40 venues ready to host the Games and that another six would be needed if they were awarded the event. "Madrid is a reality and offers ideal conditions to ensure you will all enjoy the most exciting Olympic experience of your lives," Alejandro Blanco, the President of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) and Madrid 2020.
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