Takayuki Tanii was in 2015 the athlete symbol of Japan's renaissance in race walking.
Never before (it was August 29, 2015) a Japanese athlete had managed to win an individual medal in an IAAF World Championship or another major event (Olympic Games and World Cup, now IAAF World Race Waking Team Championships).
For over a decade he had tried to win a medal both in the 20km and in the 50km.
In particular, he had begun his dreams and his hopes on January 28, 2003 when he had finished third in Kobe in that year's edition of the 20km Japanese Championships with a time of 1:20:45.
The following year on January 25, 2014 he won the title of 20km of the Japanese Champion with a time of 1:20:39 and his dreams became more concrete.
To continue to dream, Tanii moved for more than three months to Italy, to Saluzzo, together with the biomechanical team of Japan, Koji Hoga who followed him with the main athletes of that team that in Japan looked like a battleship: with him there they were the future world recordman Yusuke Suzuki and Koichiro Morioka in men, while in the women the presence of Mayumi Kawasaki stood out.
Things may not have happened in Athens as they should have. In the 20km it was only fifteenth in 1:23:38 while, having decided to dub in the 50km as others, went to meet some technical misconduct that produced in an inevitable DQ.
Then came the dark years.
At the World Championships in Osaka in 2007, at home, things did not go better: in 20km it was only 21st in 1:26:53
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games it was even worse. He was disqualified in 20km (but there were already signs in Kobe at the beginning of the season where he only came ninth in 1:24:40, one of his worst performances) while in the 50km he was only 29th in 4:01:37.
The year after the World Championships in Berlin he was again DQed in 50km.
With the 2010 began a deep process of technical review, aimed in particular at 50km and in 2011 at the World Championships in Daegu finally saw the light of the sun: in the 50km was eighth in 3:48:03.
But the dark period was not over yet: in 2012 he had to abandon the 50km of the Olympic Games in London, while in Wajima he had a very good 3:43:56, but that had not been confirmed at the IAAF Challenge Sesto San Giovanni when in the 20km he got the worst mark of his career (1:29:45).
Still technical work and at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow the confirmation of the eighth place in the 50km in 3:44:26.
The qualitative leap took place in the following year.
Victory in Wajima at the 2014 Japan Championships in 50km with the time of 3:41:32 and victory in Incheon (KOR) at the Asian Games always in the 50km in 3:40:19
Thus we arrive at the prestigious bronze of Beijing 2015 where the dream finally came true. It had been 12 years since the young Takayuki Tanii had begun to dream, and with him all of Japan.
The rest is recent history.
The age presses and leaves its mark in Rio de Janeiro (14th in 3:51:00), but now Japan has become a real battleship, especially in the 50km.
In Takahata the now 35-year-old Tanii has to settle for fourth place in 3:51:54.
Now his announcement: on February 17, 2019 in Kobe, where he established twelve of the best annual performances in the 20 km of this long career started in 2003, will be his last race.
It will be a party, that day we will all be Tanii.