Skip to main content

Imperial Prince Visits With Kenya's Bridge to Japan

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20100312-OYT1T00318.htm

translated by Brett Larner

Japan's imperial crown prince met on Mar. 11 with the man who for 30 years has been the bridge between Kenya's distance runners and Japan, sports promoter Shuichi Kobayashi, 67. The meeting came during the prince's visit to Kenya as he spoke to a group of 30 Japanese citizens living in Kenya.

Kobayashi has brought more than 50 Kenyan runners to Japan school and company teams, among them Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru and Erick Wainaina, the bronze medalist in the Atlanta Olympics and silver medalist in the Sydney Olympics. Kobayashi was himself a runner in junior high school and high school. Intrigued by the Kenyan running kingdom, at age 34 he travelled there for the first time. Over time Kobayashi developed a relationship with Rikuren to begin introducing Kenyan runners to Japanese professional and school teams. He currently focuses on discovering young runners aged 15-18, finding them places with Japanese teams where they can focus on their running with worrying about food or security.

Brought to Japan by Kobayashi at age 19, Seoul Olympics silver medalist Douglas Wakiihuri, 46, commented, "Kobayashi was the one who opened the door to the medal. I owe him a tremendous amount." Before travelling to Kenya, the imperial prince told reporters, "Ever since I was young my image of Africa was the marathon." Meeting with Kobayashi for the first time, the prince listened intently to all he had to say.

Translator's note: I recently interviewed Kobayashi's longtime Japan-side associate Tsutomu Akiyama and the first high school runner the pair brought to Japan, Stephen Mayaka, for the April issue of Running Times magazine. The complete interviews, both solid gold, will be published later this spring in JRNPremium.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive