Members of staff climbed walls themselves at the Aomi Urban Sports Park after the planned competition was scaled back due to the coronavirus outbreak.

All of the climbers still had experience of the sport and "competed" behind closed doors amid a background of announcements and music.

A number of heats and rounds were held, according to The Japan Times, with false starts, disqualifications and absences all occurring.

Announcers told fans to cheer for competitors and to look at the scoreboard, despite no supporters being in attendance.

Koji Murofushi, Japan's Athens 2004 Olympic hammer champion and Tokyo 2020's sports director, was one of the officials to attend.

The test event was due to feature 20 of Japan's best climbers, 10 men and 10 women.

Toru Kobinata, the Organising Committee's sports manager for climbing and also a vice president of the International Federation of Sport Climbing, said the venue is "primed" for competition.

Sport climbing will make its Olympic debut in Tokyo.

"Our view is that we have to stage the best competition we possibly can with the facilities we have at our disposal," Kobinata said. 

"The most important thing, I think, is to provide the athletes a fair and impartial forum to compete.

"The park has been designed so that the sun only reaches the wall for a short time in the mornings.

"A nice breeze also passes through here, we think we will be able to manage." 

Other test events to have been scaled back in a similar manner because of coronavirus include rugby sevens, wheelchair rugby and boccia.

In these sports Tokyo 2020 also pledged to go ahead anyway without athletes, instead of cancelling the events entirely. 

There have now been more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus since the outbreak originated in Chinese city Wuhan, and numerous sporting events have either been postponed or cancelled.

This includes the IFSC Plenary Congress in Turkey and three climbing competitions in Asia.

More than 3,300 people have died and more than 80 countries and territories are affected, but the overwhelming majority of cases are in China.

Japan has recorded more than 380 cases and six people have died.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have reiterated their commitment to holding Tokyo 2020 as planned.

IOC President Thomas Bach said the organisation remains "very confident" of a successful Olympics in the Japanese capital.

The Games are due to take place between July 24 and August 9.