IOC 2020 Olympics vote too close to call

One of the closest contests in Olympic history was going down to the wire in Buenos Aires today as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) prepared to vote on which city between Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
All three bid cities were to have a final chance to woo the IOC members with a 45-minute presentation piece after which the first round of voting would commence.
IOC President Jacques Rogge, presiding over his final IOC Session, got things underway with a brief speech to the 103 members present of which 97 are eligible to vote in the first round - members from the bid cities being ineligible.

"I would remind members that when they ask questions of the candidate cities after their presentations that this is not a debate nor to express opinions but simply seeking extra information," said Rogge.
Madrid looked to have gained a slight late edge over its two rivals despite Istanbul having put together the best and most dynamic of their five Games bids, and Tokyo being the only one of the three to have hosted the global sporting showpiece previously, in 1964.
However, all three reached the finishing line of the arduous two-year political marathon battered and bruised and with question marks over all of them.

Madrid will still have to overcome questions about the Spanish economy, Istanbul has to try and banish memories of the heavy-handed treatment of anti-government protestors in June and worries over the potential fallout from the bloody Syrian civil war.
Meanwhile, Tokyo will have to field growing concerns over the leaks of contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.