After finishing 11th at the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden's 99th edition to end its 3-year streak of making the 10-deep podium, Tokyo Kokusai University announced on Jan. 18 that head coach Yuji Oshida, 60, will resign. After also finishing 8th at October's Izumo Ekiden and 11th at November's National University Ekiden Oshida's resignation came as a way of taking personal responsibility for the program's drop in competitive level. He will be replaced by veteran coach Saburo Yokomizo, 83.
A graduate of Chuo University, where he won Hakone's 8th leg during his senior year, Oshida was the gold medalist in the 1500 m at the 1986 Asian Games. After working as assistant coach at Honda and Chuo, including for Chuo's 1996 Hakone Ekiden win, he has been head coach at Tokyo Kokusai since the program's inception in 2011, building it up from zero in consultation with fellow Chuo alumnus Yokomizo.
Tokyo Kokusai first qualified for the Hakone Ekiden in 2016. In 2020 it finished 5th, making the 10-deep podium for the first time and following that up with podium finishes in 2021 and 2022. In 2021 it won the Izumo Ekiden in its first appearance at the event, following that with appearances at both the National University Ekiden and Hakone to make all three major university ekidens in a single season, the mark of a top-tier team.
Coach Oshida has a reputation for being close with athletes and a polite and respectful coaching style. His success as a coach was evident at both the team and individual level. In high school, Tokyo Kokusai alumnus Tatsuhiko Ito never made it to a national-level competition. But under Oshida's coaching he became one of the highest-level collegiate runners in the country, going on to represent Japan in the 10000 m at their 2021 Tokyo Olympics post-graduation. Kenyan Vincent Yegon broke the course records on Hakone's 2nd, 3rd and 4th legs. Luka Musembi was mostly hidden in Yegon's shadow throughout their four years together at Tokyo Kokusai and never got to run Hakone, but last August he won the Hokkaido Marathon in his debut at the distance.
Despite Tokyo Kokusai's struggles through the 2022-23 season, Oshida's success with the program was widely respected by his peers, and his resignation to take responsibility for the team's failures this year sent waves of surprise across the college ekiden circuit.
His replacement as coach, Yokomizo was the star runner at Chuo University from 1959 through 1962, the team's Hakone wins all 4 years a part of its legendary 6-year streak of Hakone victories from 1959 to 1964. There are no doubts about his qualifications as a coach, but he is already 83 years old, even older than Yoshiyuki Aoba, who was named head coach at Nihon University in 2020 at age 77. Komazawa University grad Takumi Matsumura and Chukyo University alum Yuta Nakamura will serve as Yokomizo's assistant coaches. According to an involved source, Yokomizo's appointment is temporary, and a new permanent head coach may be named at a later date.
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translated and edited by Brett Larner
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