K. Ken Nakamura for IAAF
"I can imagine myself running alone in front during the final phase of the Olympic marathon," Nobuyuki Sato said to reporters recently. Three days before the marathon at the 1999 World Championships in Sevilla, Shigeru Soh, a coach of Nobuyuki Sato said: "Sato is in awesome shape. He has done better training than Koichi Morishita did before the Olympic Games in Barcelona (Soh also coached Morishita for the Barcelona Olympic Games)."
From Sato’s comment: "The question may be whether or not I have a patience to hold back and stay with the pack if they are running very slow pace. I don’t like running slow tactical race," some expected Sato to break away from the pack at some point.
Three days later, Sato made a bold move at the 25Km mark of the marathon in an attempt to steal the race, and was 24 seconds ahead of the chase pack at 35Km.
Recalling the time he ran the 1998 Rotterdam marathon, Sato said: "When I saw Fabian Roncero won the 1998 Rotterdam marathon by breaking away from the pack at 25Km, I thought in future, I might to go at 25Km."
Sato run alone in front by imagining that the last 17Km of the marathon was like the 17Km stage of an ekiden. He is used to running alone in front during ekiden race, for his team the Asahi Kasei track team is an ekiden powerhouse and is often alone in front. But unfortunately he was caught from behind. At 39Km, the 1997 World Champion, Abel Anton took over the lead from Sato. A Km later Vincenzo Modica also passed him.
Three days before the race Sato talked to his coach Takeshi Soh who said: "There is a huge difference between third and fourth." Takeshi Soh was fourth in the 1984 Olympic marathon. Sato who replied to his coach "I will win a medal" was now determined to keep his medal hope alive. He held on for a bronze medal, a first global championships medal for Japanese men since the 1992 Olympics. For this effort, in November of 1999, he was pre-selected for the Olympic marathon team before any of the domestic Olympic qualifying races.
Nobuyuki Sato was born on August 8, 1972 in Kariya, a town about a half marathon distance from a metropolis of Nagoya. While he never won sprint races against his friends in elementary school, he ran away from his peers in distance races. He knew that he was a talented distance runner but soccer was his main interest in his youth. Although he enjoyed watching marathon races (at the time marathon running in Japan was at its peak with Seko, Soh brothers and Kunimitsu Ito at their prime) on television, there was no role model around him who could inspire Sato to be a distance runner. He was concentrating in soccer, for the town of Kariya was a soccer craze town; he was a good soccer player, and was a member of a soccer team in school as well as a local soccer club in town.
But when he was in 7th grade his talent for running was spotted by Fumi Nakano, a school track coach. Although his junior high school did not have a boy’s track team (Fumi Nakano was a coach of a girl’s track team), encouraged by Nakano, Sato started running some track and ekiden races. His best finish in a track race during his junior high school was 3rd place finish at the 3000m in the 1987 Japanese junior high school championships with 8:45.13 in his senior year (9th grade).
Wishing to concentrate on track in high school, and hoping to win championships, he enrolled in a local track powerhouse, Chukyo high school, whose team was coached by a 2:12 marathon runner Koshiro Kawaguchi.
Coach Kawaguchi had a long range plan for Sato; Kawaguchi thought that Sato should increase his training load gradually. He did not want to burn Sato out in high school. Consequently, his championships performance in high school was not spectacular; in his senior year, he was 8th (14:41.82) at the 5000m in the Japanese high school championships. While the leading time of the year by a high school student at the 5000m was 14:13.9 in 1990, Sato’s 5000m Personal Best in high school was 14:24.9. As for his ekiden performances, he run the 10Km first stage, traditionally given to the best runner of the school, in the national high school ekiden championships in both his junior and senior years. He was 6th (out of 47 runners) (30:06) and 7th (29:59) in his junior and senior year respectively.
After graduation from high school, Sato enrolled in Chuo University. In Chuo University, to prepare runners for the prestigious Hakone Ekiden, the coach assigned lots of distance work. The Hakone Ekiden is a distance relay race from Tokyo to Hakone and back (total distance of over 200Km) which is contested over two days on January 2 and 3 every year. More than any other, it is the race by which Tokyo area college distance runners are judged. He ran the fastest 10th stage at the Hakone Ekiden in his senior year. In that year, his school, Chuo University was third in this prestigious ekiden race. In the Japanese Collegiate ekiden championships which is contested among all Japanese college ekiden teams (whereas Hakone ekiden is for Tokyo area college teams only), his best performance was the second place finish in the 8th stage (59:33 for 19.7Km) in 1993; traditionally the 8th stage is where the best runner of the team ran. He also made a half marathon debut in college and was 10th in the Tokyo City Half marathon with 1:02:39. On the other hand, his track performance was not exceptional. His best performance in the Japanese Collegiate track & field championships was 4th place finish (29:50.90) at the10000m in his junior year.
By the time of college graduation he had a wish to concentrate on the marathon. So in 1995 after graduation, he joined the Asahi Kasei track team. In the Asahi Kasei track team he found what it is like to be part of a team whose goal is to be world class. He recorded 46:20 for 10miles at Kosa in his first year at the Asahi Kasei. His original plan for the marathon debut was at the 1996 Tokyo marathon, but a series of injuries delayed his plan. He also needed to modify his loping strides to one with faster turn over, which is more suitable for marathon running, which required some time.
In the marathon, his aggressive running style attracted the attention of both spectators and media. In his debut marathon, the 1996 Fukuoka marathon, he led in the mid-part of the race (from 21.8Km to 28.6Km) by as much as 16 seconds. Although at the end he was only 16th in 2:17:48, he was not too disappointed, and happy to complete a marathon. Next, He planned to run the 1997 Tokyo marathon in February, but due to injury he had to postpone until Lake Biwa marathon in March. In the 1999 Lake Biwa marathon, he ran much more conservatively with improving his marathon PR as his goal. He did just that with the eighth place finish in 2:12:28.
His third marathon was at the 1998 Rotterdam marathon. Knowing that he was in a good shape, he went with Fabian Roncero at world record pace. After passing the halfway point in 1:03:11 he slowed down dramatically in the last half (2:19:23 for 21st place). He was slowed by blisters caused by tying his shoe laces too tight. But everything finally came together in the 1998 Fukuoka marathon, despite falling at 15Km. While he slowed down dramatically around 35Km in all his previous marathons, in the 1998 Fukuoka marathon he was able to maintain the pace throughout the race (he ran in 15:10 from 35Km to 40Km). He was second in 2:08:48, a huge PR. With this performance he was selected for the 1999 World Championships team. Reflecting back, Sato said after the World Championships marathon: "I improved with marathon experience. I should have concentrated on the marathon earlier. Had I thought about marathons in college, I could have trained with Asahi Kasei track team from time to time. Although I had a desire to run a marathon, I did not do anything concrete to fulfill this goal."
Together with his Asahi Kasei team-mate Shinji Kawashima, who is also running the Olympic marathon, Sato ran the Olympic course on April 30. Then from June 25 to July 23, they trained in Australia. Now they are back in Japan, training in the northern island of Hokkaido. Their training is going as well as they can hope for. His coaches, the Soh brothers assess the strength of Sato as his ability to train very hard. Sato himself now thinks that he is ready to run 2:07.
Date of Birth Aug 8, 1972
Ht/Wt: 175cm/57Kg
Complete Marathon performances
2:17:48 Fukuoka 16th Dec 1, 1996
2:12:28 Lake Biwa 6th March 2, 1997
2:19:23 Rotterdam 21st Apr 19, 1998
2:08:48 Fukuoka 2nd Dec 6, 1998
2:14:07 WC/Sevilla 3rd Aug 28, 1999
2:21:12 Sydney 9th April 30, 2000 (training run to familiarize with the Olympic
course)
Half Marathon PR 1:02:36 (1995)
10000m PR 28:16.86 (1999)
