When I asked if I could take a photo, the members of the track and field club quickly gathered around Mr. Eriguchi. Even though there had been no preliminary planning, he laughed and said, "Let's go for a Tokorozawa Campus EXILE type of image." The result of his quick decisiveness is the cover image. I asked how they got to be so close. He responded by saying, "Maybe it was because of dorm life. Everyone's a great guy."

When Mr. Eriguchi was young, he had a small frame and wasn't very good at basketball or dodge ball. "Foot races were the only thing I was good at. I was fast," said Mr. Eriguchi, who continued track through junior and senior high school, even though his physical fitness lagged behind the other members. During his second year in senior high school, his body finally caught up to the standard level. Even though he had improved his physical condition and produced results, during an interscholastic athletic meet he was forced to withdraw from the semifinals when he suffered an injury. "I felt sorry for myself and my own worthlessness. I was overwhelmed by a feeling of not knowing where to go from there." Unsure of how to proceed after graduating from high school, he stumbled across a certain encounter. "A person from the Waseda University track and field club came all the way to Kumamoto to scout me." Mr. Eriguchi was so happy he could barely contain himself. However, continuing onto college in his current state was the only thing that bothered him. He said that he had wanted to produce acceptable results and enter college with a clear conscious. "That's why I competed in the nationals and took first place!" said Mr. Eriguchi, with a smile of satisfaction.

After entering Waseda, Mr. Eriguchi worked out a balance between studying and training. But not all his effort turned into positive results, and there were times when he suffered defeats at meets. "When that sort of thing happened, there was always someone there to support me." By taking in advice and having others listen to his own words, he became able to view himself in an objective perspective.
"I began to strive toward seeking out a point that I could further develop for every instance when I suffered a failure. This change of mentality is also something that came from dorm life."

If you get caught up in wins and records, you actually impart a limit upon your own body, said Mr. Eriguchi. That's why he considers his 10.07 second record as a mere stepping stone. "I believe that I can still move forward. I can still improve further."

He is currently working to bring his ideal running style into reality. In the future, he hopes to return to Kumamoto and become a physical education instructor. "I want to offer support and teach things to students who love to run, just like I was taught at Waseda."