Under Mount Fuji’s gaze, the runner from Meiji University collapses into his teammates’ arms, sobbing as he retches, legs flailing like a new-born colt’s. Kyota Yabushita, delirious from wringing strength from his seven stone body, is more than ten minutes slower than the winner of the punishing mountain stage of the Hakone Ekiden university relay race. The crowd still give him a cheer as loud as the winner’s, even though he has just suffered the humiliation of clocking the worst time in a field of twenty.
For Japan, the Hakone Ekiden, run on 2-3 January, is one of the biggest sporting events of the year and a ritual of national bonding. Values of grit and teamwork are bundled into a romantic package of nostalgia for youth. Run over ten stages of about a half-marathon each, its elite runners cover 217.1 kilometres from Tokyo to the mountain resort of Hakone, at the foot of Japan’s iconic snow-capped volcano and all the way back to Tokyo. If British youth runners crave Olympic gold, their Japanese counterparts (some of the world’s best unknown athletes) grow up with Hakone as the stuff of dreams. It’s no wonder. During Japan’s most important holiday, a time when a family’s chief duty is to huddle around the television and drink beer, the race reaps 30 per cent viewership.
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