THE International Olympic Committee on Wednesday named Budapest, Hamburg in Germany, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome as the final candidates for the 2024 Olympics.

    The winning bid will be announced after a vote by the IOC session in the Peruvian capital Lima in September 2017.

    IOC President Thomas Bach said there were five “outstanding cities” in the race for the Games, which will be decided in two years.

    “What we see are five really highly qualified candidate cities,” Bach told reporters. He added that the contest for 2024 would be “strong and fascinating.”

    The announcement of the five cities — Hamburg’s candidacy will depend on a public referendum in the city Nov. 29 — was made hours after the midnight Tuesday deadline for bids.

    Toronto and the Azerbaijan capital of Baku had considered entering but finally decided against.

    The contest will be the first completely run under the IOC’s Agenda 2020 reforms aimed at making bid contests less expensive and bureaucratic.

    (SD-Agencies)