The team of Aska Cambridge, Yoshihide Kiryu, Ryota Yamagata and Shota Iizuka, which stunned the world by capturing the silver medal in the men's 4x100-meter relay at this summer's Rio de Janeiro Olympics, received the Athlete of the Year award at the annual Athletic Award ceremony hosted by the Japan Association of Athletics Federations on Monday.
The recipients of the awards, who were announced earlier this month, gathered at a Tokyo hotel to receive their respective honors.
The selection of the relay team was beyond argument. It finished only behind the Usain Bolt-led Jamaican team in a new Asian-record time of 37.60 seconds in the gold-medal race in Brazil in August.