Part 3: Olympians of Keio University / Track and Field Club — The Fleet-Footed Alumni of the Juku

2020/07/27

Image: Berlin Olympics 4x100m relay members. Second from the left is Bunta Suzuki (Provided by Mr. Takayuki Suzuki).

It is well known that the first Olympics in which Japanese athletes participated was the 1912 Stockholm Games, and the events were the marathon (Shiso Kanakuri) and the sprint (Yahiko Mishima) in track and field. Since then, track and field has been regarded as a central Olympic sport in Japan. Meanwhile, at Keio University, although athletic meets had been held regularly since the first track and field meet in 1886, the official birth of the Track and Field Club was surprisingly late, in 1917. In this context, Hiroshi Masuda, a member of the Track and Field Club, became the first Olympian from Keio University at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.

After graduating from the Yochisha Elementary School, Masuda was active in the Track and Field Club from his time at the Keio Futsubu School, and was said to be an all-around athlete who performed above standard in swimming and rugby as well. A pure "Mita-ko" (child of Mita), he was a well-known figure at the Juku nicknamed "Tanuki" (the raccoon dog). His father, Eisaku, was the younger brother of Takashi Masuda of the Mitsui Zaibatsu; while known as a businessman and a connoisseur of the arts, he also loved sports and greatly supported his son. Therefore, in an era when Keio University did not yet have sufficient track and field facilities, Masuda practiced events such as the javelin throw at a sports ground built at his home in Meguro, winning a spot in the Olympics as a pentathlon athlete. However, at the actual Olympics, he injured his leg during practice just before the event and withdrew mid-competition.

Subsequently, in 1926, the Juku's Nitta Sports Ground was opened in Yaguchi Village, Ebara District (now Ota Ward), improving the practice environment, and the Track and Field Club began producing prominent athletes. Yoshio Miki (110m hurdles) and Seiichiro Tsuda (marathon) participated in the 1928 Amsterdam Games, with Tsuda achieving a 6th-place finish. Talent gathered particularly in long-distance running, and in 1930, the club recorded its first outbound leg victory (4th place overall) in the Hakone Ekiden. The following year, they recorded 2nd place overall, and in 1932, they finally achieved their long-awaited first overall victory, which remains their only one to date. The central athletes of this period were Masamichi Kitamoto and Shoichiro Takenaka, among others; Kitamoto in particular led the club, winning four stage awards, including a new stage record.

Both athletes also participated in the 5000m and 10000m at the Los Angeles Olympics (1932), where an episode involving Takenaka became well-known. In the 5000m final, Takenaka fell behind the leaders and was eventually lapped. His actions—yielding the inside of the track to the competing leaders and refusing to withdraw even after the race was decided, running until the very end—were praised as the spirit of sportsmanship. However, Takenaka himself did not desire such idealization; in later years, he reportedly said that he had only accidentally stumbled outward due to exhaustion when he yielded the inside of the track. Tsuda (5th place in the marathon), Iwao Abu (100m, 5th place in the 4x100m relay), and Misao Ono (high jump) also competed in this tournament.

In 1931, two star athletes who had been famous since their junior high school days also enrolled: sprinter Bunta Suzuki and pole vaulter Sueo Oe. They gradually rose to prominence, and in 1935, both were selected as representatives for the International University Games in Budapest, growing into leading figures in their fields. They were then selected as Berlin Olympic representatives along with Keiji Imai (400m) and Tetsuo Imai (3000m steeplechase).

However, at the actual Olympics, Suzuki was eliminated in the second qualifying round of the 100m, and in the 4x100m relay where he served as the second runner, he failed the baton pass with Ryutoku Yoshioka, the "Dawn Super Express," resulting in a painful disqualification. Meanwhile, Oe engaged in a desperate struggle lasting over five hours for a medal. The competition for the pole vault title narrowed down to five athletes: the Japanese pair of Oe and Shuhei Nishida, and three Americans. America's Meadows was the only one to clear 4.35m, securing first place. The battle for second and third place remained neck-and-neck, and by the time it was narrowed down to Oe and Nishida, it was already dark, and their physical strength was severely depleted by light rain and cold. Following a suggestion from the officials, the Japanese side decided the rankings themselves; Nishida, who cleared 4.25m on his first attempt, was ranked second, and Oe was ranked third. After returning home, both athletes cut their silver and bronze medals in half and joined them together to keep one each. This is the famous "Medals of Friendship" episode, which has been passed down until after the war as a moving story featured in textbooks. Oe, whose handsome features were said to have attracted invitations from film actors, was a star athlete representing the sports world of that time. He continued to compete with his sights set on the Tokyo Olympics (1940), but those hopes were cut short by the war.

After the war, the number of Olympians from the Track and Field Club decreased significantly. During the Showa era, the only participant was Yojiro Muro, who competed in the 4x100m relay at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In the Heisei era, Akihiko Koike competed in the 2000 Sydney Games, Masato Yokota and Ryota Yamagata in the 2012 London Games, and Yamagata also competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games; the silver medal in the 4x100m relay is still fresh in our memories. Additionally, Saki Takakuwa, who competed in the London and Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, is the only Paralympian from Keio University across all sports.