A 22-year-old firefighter won the annual "Lucky Man" footrace held early Thursday at a major Shinto shrine in western Japan.As soon as the gates of Nishinomiya Shrine swung open at 6 a.m., Yuki Yamamoto from Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, dashed ahead of the pack to the main hall some 230 meters away, beating the 107 other lottery-selected competitors in the first group to race. Altogether, some 5,000 people took part in the traditional race."I'm very happy," declared Yamamoto, who said the win made him look back ruefully on an inter-high school pole-vault championship that he missed due t…READ FULL ARTICLE