Earlier this month Aoyama Gakuin University broke its own course record to win the 102nd Hakone Ekiden, its 9th overall win and second three-peat. But in the background behind the brilliance of the almost unbeatable champion, one rookie on another team ran well in hopes of making the people back home who were still recovering from the Noto Hanto earthquake happy. To make that happen the same athlete left his position with one of the top corporations in the world to go to university with Hakone dreams. Let us tell you about Yamato Sugasaki, another Hakone Ekiden story.
Born in Toyota, Aichi, Sugasaki played soccer through junior high school. But when he went to Toyota Kogaku Gijutsu H.S., a private training school operated by the Toyota corporation, he switched to the track and field team. Sugasaki had watched the Hakone Ekiden on TV since he was a kid and decided that he wanted "to try something new," he says.
His 3rd year of high school Sugsaki's times began to approve, but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that he would start working for Toyota after graduating. He was placed in the auto body division, where he was involved in auto manufacturing, but his love of running stayed true. During his runs in his free time he started dreaming of dedicating himself to becoming an elite runner. His hopes of becoming a Hakone runner became too much to hold back.
Still in his first 6 months on the job, last September Sugasaki quit Toyota. It was an amicable split, and the people he worked with were supportive in him leaving to pursue his dreams. Through the help of his high school coach doors opened for him at Daito Bunka University.
Now in an environment where the focus was Hakone and he could fully devote himself to running, he improved quickly. He made his college ekiden debut at November's National University Ekiden, where he was placed on the competitive First Stage. 2 weeks later he ran an excellent 1:02:17 at the Ageo City Half Marathon. Named to DBU's starting roster at Hakone, he was assigned the critically important Third Stage on the first day of the race.
Sugasaki started the Third Stage in 18th and ran well, but nearing the end of his run he started to have problems. "I don't know if it was dehydration or hypoglycemia," he says, "but in the last 500 m I felt like I had completely lost power from the waist down." He pushed through, but just meters before the handoff zone he collapsed and fell. "I have to keep the tasuki moving," he thought to himself, somehow forcing himself to get up and hand it off to the next runner.
Sugasaki managed to keep DBU in 18th, but his time was the slowest on his stage. "I got to achieve my dream of running Hakone and feeling what it's like to get cheered on by those crowds along the course, but it wasn't a good run and I hurt the team's performance," he says. But that hasn't lessened his energy for pursuing his dreams. "I want to keep getting better than I am now and help this great Daito Bunka team make it onto the podium," he says. It's a lofty goal for Sugasaki's second season.
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translated and edited by Brett Larner
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