Ayaka Suzuki, Younger Sister of Olympic Marathoner Yuka Suzuki, Faces Final East Japan Women's Ekiden
The final edition of the East Japan Women's Ekiden takes place Nov. 10. 18 teams representing the eastern prefectures will bring high-level women's competition to the streets of Fukushima. Getting attention on the Akita team is Ayaka Suzuki, the younger sister of Paris Olympics marathon 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki.
Ayaka is a 3rd-year at Akita's Omagari H.S. She began running seriously after entering high school, citing her sister's influence. "When I saw her winning her stages and helping her team in university ekidens, I thought that I might be able to do the same and decided to give it a try," she said. Before her excellent run at the Paris Olympics Yuka ran the East Japan Women's Ekiden 3 times, inspiring others as she went from a young athlete to one of the best in the world. "I was surprised that she was competitive at that level," said Ayaka. "When I saw how strong she was running it really moved me."
In junior high school Ayaka was on the tennis team, but after being accepted by the same high school her sister had gone to she decided to run for the track team like Yuka had. At 165 cm Ayaka has a dynamic running form, leading the Omagari team as its star runner and creating great expectations for her future. Head coach Yu Suzuki commented, "She has long legs and is able to use them to run big. She has a lot of natural talent, and if she can learn to make better use of it I think she can become even stronger."
Asked about Ayaka's personality, her teammates said, "She's very innocent, but sensitive to others and can notice changes in people. She's a bit absent-minded but is funny too and always makes us laugh." Her hobbies include watching anime and drawing and she is a big fan of K-pop group Twice, but when she runs she changes completely. In practice she is always all-in and challenges herself to beat the times coach Suzuki gives her for her workouts, and she believes in never giving in until the very end.
At October's prefectural qualifier for the National High School Ekiden she ran on the first stage against all the toughest competition from other schools, but even though she won the stage she wasn't satisfied with her performance. "It's nice to win the stage," she said, "but I wanted to get further ahead of the teams behind me and help my team out more." Strict with herself and hating to lose, Ayaka also feels pressure from being known as Yuka's little sister. "The more successful she is, the more anxious is makes me sometimes," she said. "I feel like I have to change too."
Despite the pressure of being compared, the two sisters are very close and have the same hobbies, talking excitedly about anime and manga when they're together. Although they live far apart, Yuka always sends Ayaka messages of support before important races. "After she won the MGC and qualified for Paris she sent me a message saying, 'You're getting better really fast. Just keep working at it without overdoing it,'" said Ayaka. "It really encouraged me and made me feel like I could shoot for the top since she had made it there."
Yuka remains Ayaka's biggest motivation. "She's the athlete I respect the most, and as my older sister I'm really proud of her and rely on her," she said. "She's working hard and doing everything she can to be the best, so I don't want to do any less." Ayaka plans to continue running after graduating from high school next spring. In her first and last East Japan Women's Ekiden, she plans to live up the race's ideal of running without regrets until the very end.
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translated by Brett Larner
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