Masao Hashimoto who is going to run as a torch bearer on the first day of the torch relay at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games shows a towel promoting the torch relay during an interview with Reuters in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, March 24, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-HoonShare this contentIWAKI, Japan: Rena Arakawa wants to say thanks for help after the 2011 nuclear disaster forced her from her home.
"'I did it!' That's what I felt," Hashimoto told Reuters, describing his feelings when chosen more than a year ago to bear the torch in the city of Iwaki.In 1964, when Japan became the first Asian nation to host the Olympics, Hashimoto was a baseball playing junior high school student and one of a select few chosen to run with the torch bearers, holding the Olympic flag.
A marathon runner who began at 61, Hashimoto looks younger than his age. He has run about 200 km a month in preparation for the relay, even though - like other runners - his stint is only 200 metres long. "I have been hoping to do this as it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Arakawa told Reuters at her high school.
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