Skip to main content

Kawauchi on Tokyo 2020: "It Feels Like the War -- If You Step Out of Line People Call You a Traitor"

"It seems like I'm always getting bullied by the Nikkan Gendai, and whenever I see one of those articles it's like, 'Here we go again.....'"

From the beginning, he's overflown with idiosyncrasy. On the frontlines of the marathon without belonging to a corporate team, Japan's "strongest amateur runner" Yuki Kawauchi, 30, has always brought controversy to the Japanese marathon world with his outspoken comments. Having said that his appearance at August's London World Championships will be his "last time running on the national team," the Nikkan Gendai asked Kawauchi to tell us all about the current state of the marathon world.

"It feels like the war."

Kawauchi was the top Japanese finisher at 3rd overall in 2:09:11 at last December's Fukuoka International Marathon, the first domestic selection race for the London World Championships team. His ticket to London was in his hand. At a press conference later in March, JAAF marathon development project leader Toshihiko Seko, 60, told him, "I want you to continue until the Tokyo Olympics." Kawauchi angrily retorted, "The Tokyo Olympics aren't the be-all and end-all for everyone!" What exactly did he mean?

"I think it's strange that everyone is totally fixated on the Tokyo Olympics," Kawauchi explained. "People are different at different ages. Runners in their late 30s now will be about 40 in three years, and the high schoolers focused on Tokyo will only be college students. I don't like this environment of, 'Well, we don't have any choice except to say that we're aiming for Tokyo.' It feels a bit like during the war era. There's this Great Cause called the Tokyo Olympics, and everyone has to march in that direction. If you step out of line even just a tiny bit people say, 'You're a traitor!' I hate that kind of atmosphere. That's why I said that to Seko."

The popular image of Kawauchi is of him being on the verge of collapse at the end of a race, but that is a testament to being focused on each and every race.

"I really hate this mindset of London being a springboard toward Tokyo," he said, "this apparent idea that if the Tokyo Olympics are the most important thing then it's OK to just treat London as a throwaway effort. Some of us want to bring everything to the line in London, and nobody can say for sure that they're still going to be on the scene in three or four years. It's so happened that I've been able to be at the top of the game for almost seven years now since 2011, but I could get an injury that I can't recover from at any time. Who knows what will happen by three years from now?

"Lots of people say they have a three or four-year plan, but I think in terms of at most one or two years ahead, treating each race before me as important, and running with a sense of purpose in every one of them. I don't think that's what the Japanese national team is all about. Whether it's the World Championships or the Olympics, if you're representing Japan you're representing Japan. When you're chosen for the team there are loads of people who weren't chosen, so instead of being fixated on what comes after that I think you need to be focused on the race that's right there in front of you, the World Championships, and not saying, 'Tokyo! Tokyo!'"

"I hate this tendency to DNS races easily."

Two days before scoring a place on his third World Championships team at Fukuoka last year, Kawauchi sprained his left ankle. Despite everyone around him telling him not to run he forced himself to start. With heavy emphasis on the big selection races for Olympic and World Championships teams, there is a tendency for many athletes to DNS planned races due to inadequate training or injury. Something Kawauchi questions.

"I've always hated this tendency to DNS races so easily," he said. "If you look at an entry list, out of say thirty invited athletes on the list it's pretty normal for about ten people not to start. Some people may say, 'It's OK not to run a race you've committed to for the sake of a bigger race down the road,' but that's pretty much dead wrong. If you've accepted an invitation to run there will be a lot of fans looking forward to it, and you are obligated to follow through. If you DNS just because of a slight injury you're going to be disappointing all of them, and I think that demonstrates a lack of professionalism. I'm not a pro but I'd like to think I conduct myself with professionalism, and I will not DNS no matter what happens. I guess saying that will probably piss some people off again." [laughs]

Kawauchi also points out another risk in the trend of thinking that nothing but the Tokyo Olympics matters.

"I'm really worried that when Tokyo is over, a lot of athletes will be completely burned out," he said, his expression betraying his concern. "In particular, I think the athletes who are doing it right at their limits could lose motivation and immediately retire. Personally I plan to keep on going just the same after Tokyo until my ability fades away, so Tokyo itself is not a motivation and there's no problem with that at all. But I think that as a whole Japanese marathoning is going to get weaker than ever before. There's a World Championships in the U.S.A. in 2021, and what's going to happen there is a major worry."

source article: https://www.nikkan-gendai.com/articles/view/sports/205045
translated by Brett Larner
photo © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr