Shingo Suetsugu, next great Asian
sprinter
K Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
26 July 2001 - As one of the most promising young sprinters destined to inherit the legacy from Koji Ito, 20-year-old Shingo Suetsugu advanced to the semi-final of the 200m in Sydney after clocking 20.37 in his second-round heat. It was the fastest 200m time recorded by a Japanese sprinter at global championships.
Because Shingo Suetsugu was very fast as a kid, he always dreamt of running in the Olympics. As a twelve years old Suetsugu watched Susumu Takano run in the Olympic final in 1992. And Takano who finished 7th at the 1991 World Championships became a hero for Suetsugu.
Shingo Suetsugu started as a long jumper but soon moved to the sprint. His personal best in junior high school was only 11.26 at the 100m. As a consequence, he never made it to the national inter-junior high school championships. His best showing was the second place finish at the 100m in the Kyushu district championships for junior high school students. However, he was still recruited by coach Yushin Kamuro of Kyushu Gakuin high school, a local track & field powerhouse. Kamuro told Suetsugu, "You have a talent for sprinting," which impressed Suetsugu.
Recalling his high school days, Suetsugu said, "He (coach Kamuro) had long range goal for me. Meeting coach Kamuro was a pivotal event of my track and field career." Under the influence of his coach, Suetsugu learned to love the sports of track and field. In high school, although Suetsugu won twice the 100m in the boy's division of the national games, he failed to win the more prestigious national inter-high school track and field championships.
Although he recorded the fastest performance of the year in both the 100m (10.37), and the 200m (21.08) in his senior year - 1998 - Suetsugu failed to win either event because he injured his foot playing basketball just before the national inter-high school championships.
Although he failed to win the national inter-high school championships, and his personal bests, 10.37 at 100m and 21.08 at 200m were not exceptional (He was ranked ninth and 14th in the all-time high school performer's list) Suetsugu was recruited by his hero Susumu Takano who was coaching at Tokai University. Takano was a legendary 400m runner in Japan because he qualified for the final at both the 1991 World Championships and the 1992 Olympic Games. Suetsugu joined the Tokai University track team in 1999, and started to train under the tutelage of Susumu Takano. His training partners included Koji Ito, a triple Asian Games' champion at the Asian Games in Bangkok.
The 1999 national games were held in his native Kumamoto, which turned out to be another turning point of Suetsugu's track career. When he placed fifth at the 100m, Suetsugu felt that he still had room to improve. In the winter of 1999/2000, Suetsugu trained as if there was no tomorrow.
Naturally, he made a major transformation in 2000, just in time for the Olympic Games. First, in April, he recorded a hand-timed 20.4 for the 200m at the college dual meet against Nihon University. He followed it with a 20.67, a new collegiate record, in the Kanto district Inter-Collegiate Championships in May, which qualified him for the Olympic Games. In September, in the National Inter-Collegiate track and field Championships, he recorded 10.19 at the 100m. A week later at the Super meet in Yokohama, Suetsugu recorded another collegiate record at the 200m. His time, 20.26 was the third fastest 200m time ever run by Japanese.
In the Olympics, after finishing 8th in the semi-final of the 200m, he ran the third leg of the 4x100m relay in all three rounds. In the semi-final, the Japanese team equalled the Asian record of 38.31. In the final, despite injuring his right hamstring halfway around the curve, Suetsugu successfully handed the baton to the anchor, Nobuharu Asahara. The team finished sixth in the final.
After the Olympic Games, following the advice of Koji Ito, he took about a month and a half off concentrating on recovering from injury he sustained in the Olympics. After recuperation, his base winter training started, which, surprisingly, does not include weight room workouts.
His first individual race of the 2001 season was in Mito meet in May, where he finished second ahead of Obadele Thompson, an Olympic bronze medallist, at the 100m. A week later, at the Osaka GP, Suetsugu competed in the 200m, an event in which he is concentrating this season, and finished third in 20.42. Another week later, Suetsugu ran three events - 100m, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay - in the Kanto district inter-collegiate track and field championships; he won them all. His team, Tokai University won the district championship for the first time in its 55 year history. Another week later, in the East Asian Games in Osaka, despite feeling exhausted, Suetsugu easily won the 200m with 20.34.
In the heat of 200m at the national championships in Tokyo, Suetsugu recorded 20.49 with self-estimated 70% effort. With possibility of a national 200m record looming over the horizon, the final was awaited with anticipation. Unfortunately, the final was ran into the wind around the bend (but the head wind was not recorded along the home-straight, and thus race stats do not show that headwind was a factor) and Suetsugu recorded only 20.48. However, it was another proof of his dominance in the event that Suetsugu was 0.45 second ahead of Yusuke Omae who recorded 20.29 a few weeks later in the better race condition.
Suetsugu thinks it is important to run the first 150m fast in Edmonton. "I have been running around the curve a lot in training, because I think the first 150m is very important. In the semi-final in Sydney, I was left behind around the curve," he told Tatsuo Terada.
Suetsugu can achieve two goals this year. Better the 200m national record - 20.16 held by Koji Ito, and qualify for the final at the 200m in the World Championships. However, as Suetsugu told Terada, "The races are more about competitions than records. I feel that being competitive is more important this year."
