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Mogusu Pulling Himself Together in Wake of Car Accident

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/other/090501/oth0905010946004-n1.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Mogusu in the Hyogo Relay Carnival 10000 m on Apr. 26. Click photo for full-sized version.

A former Hakone Ekiden star during his days at Yamanashi Gakuin University, Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem) has begun his comeback after a car accident in his native Kenya in February. Mogusu was 5th in the Apr. 26 Hyogo Relay Carnival 10000 m and 2nd in the Apr. 29 Oda Memorial Track and Field Meet 5000 m in a time just off his best. "I have to just take things bit by bit," he said after the race in Hyogo.

Mogusu was driving the car at the time of the accident which left his new coach Sho Kimura in a coma. Shock and guilt over Kimura's condition prevented Mogusu, who was uninjured, from training in the months following the accident. Now hospitalized in Wakayama, Kimura's condition has improved to the point where he is able to feed himself, but the news doesn't bring back Mogusu's characteristic smile. "I'm still very, very sorry that I was responsible for this," he says.

While Kimura was still comatose, Mogusu's former coach at Yamanashi Gakuin University, Masahito Ueda, tried to encourage Mogusu, telling him, "If Kimura wakes up and sees that you're not running any more it's going to be much worse." Now on the comeback from the stress of the accident and from the time off, Mogusu hopes to make the Kenyan national team for this summer's World Championships in Berlin.
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