Now 39, Former Hakone Ekiden Star Masato Imai Putting Everything Into Last Chance for First Olympics
At Japan's Olympic marathon trials in Tokyo on Oct. 15, the top two finishers will earn places on the 2024 Paris Olympics marathon team. The oldest man on the entry list is 39-year-old Masato Imai of the Toyota Kyushu corporate team. In his days at Juntendo University Imai redefined how to run the Hakone Ekiden's legendary uphill 5th leg with multiple course records, earning him the title "God of the Mountain." Joining Toyota Kyushu after graduation ,he made the Japanese team for the Beijing World Championships but was unable to run due to illness. At the Olympic trials, he says, "I'll bring all my experience as an athlete into play."
Imai qualified for the MGC, the shorthand name for the Olympic trials, when he placed 6th at last year's Osaka Marathon. At 39, almost all the other athletes from his generation have retired, but Imai continue to pursue the toughest of distances, the marathon. "The presence of the 'The Olympics' weighs heavily," he says. "Competing in the Olympic marathon is a dream that I've always had, and it grew into a goal. I haven't that goal, a failure that now drives me."
The "God of the Mountain" title has also been a weight for Imai to carry, especially without having translated it into Olympic success. Two years ago he told his coach, 1992 Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita, "The Osaka Marathon would be the deciding point, whether I would retire or whether I would continue as an athlete. That's how seriously I went into it."
"Success requires bringing utilizing everything you have," says Morishita. "Just being talented isn't enough to get onto a national team, or to win a medal. It requires a range of strengths, and you have to use your opponents' strengths and weaknesses as well."
Morishita has a special feeling for Imai, who has been with Toyota Kyushu for 17 years and acts as a caring mentor to the younger runners on the team. "I'll let him run until he himself says it's time to hang them up," he says. "He holds the team together. Everyone says they want to have a long career, but it takes a special kind of light shining to guide the way. For Imai, the Olympics have been a giant, blazing beacon. That's why he came to me for coaching. He hasn't found his way there yet, so that fire keeps burning inside him."
The difference in age between Imai and the other athletes comes out sometimes when they're hanging out talking. At a team barbecue during a summer training camp, Imai and teammate Yuma Kaiki, 24, talked about music Imai listens to from back in the day. "You know, stuff like Yuzu, Orange Range, 19," said Imai. "I've heard of Orange Range, but I don't know any of the rest of that," Kaiki answered. "You don't know 19?" Imai asked in amazement. "Never heard of them," Kaiki laughed.
All the younger runners on the team get along with Imai despite the age difference. "Whenever I have problems I can talk to him," says Atsuya Imai, no relation. "He listens and gives me advice. He's like a mentor." Kyuma Yokota agrees, saying "At some point he might leave the team, and I really wonder what's going to happen to us when he does. That's how important he is to all of us."
Imai himself gets something out of his relationship with the younger athletes. "When I talk to them, a lot of the time the advice I'm giving applies to myself too. But I have responsibility in what I say to them. You have to be aware that people are looking to you as an example."
In his closing comments at the end of the barbecue Imai spoke to his teammates from the heart. "I want to win, I just want to win," he said. "In my own races, I want to win. With all of you at the New Year Ekiden, I want to win. To be #1, that's what I really want."
Imai started his serious training for the MGC at the beginning of August. His first run of the buildup was a solo 40 km, already pushing himself in the battle for the Paris Olympics. "I've been doing this a long time," he says. "17 years in the corporate leagues. 25 years if you go all the way back to high school track and field. It's all relevant. I'll bring it all into play. I want to run a race I can be proud of."
Exactly two months remain until the MGC. The veteran Imai is still in pursuit of his lifelong dream, and the fans who've been with him all the way since that legendary day in January, 2005 when he ran up the mountain would love nothing more than to see him standing on the podium come October.
Translator's note: Back in 2011 I interviewed Imai shortly after the death of his former teammate, 2008 Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru. At that time Imai said, "I wanted to run together with him. If it had been in the Olympics it would have been the best. The next Olympics, or the one after that. I wanted to race him on the Olympic stage."
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