Skip to main content

Japan in Wanjiru

photo © 2007 Dr. Helmut Winter
all rights reserved

by Brett Larner

Last week I was asked to write a dedication to the late Samuel Wanjiru for a forthcoming book on Kenyan distance running achievements.  Working on it, I felt that it's time to bring completion to another project related to Wanjiru.

In the weeks following Wanjiru's death, in response to my article "Wanjiru in the Words of Those Who Knew Him" I was contacted by someone claiming to be a Kenyan journalist proposing to work together on interviewing key people in Wanjiru's life for a feature article in a specific major publication, possibly leading to a book.  The person's credentials seemed to check out and, caring a great deal about the topic, I agreed.  Most of the people who knew Wanjiru best during his days in Japan were gracious enough to agree to interviews with me at a time when their grief was still fresh.  Being pressured to complete my interviews by a deadline I sent transcripts of the interviews for the other writer to read and abruptly stopped hearing from him.  Weeks went by without word, then months.  My periodic inquiries as to the status of the work on his end were met with one-sentence replies if at all.  I was very regrettably finally forced to withdraw my material from the project, which I still have no evidence even exists beyond my own work.

Re-reading the interviews last week as I thought about what I wanted to say in my book dedication I could see that here at the end of the year I have an obligation to the people close to Wanjiru who shared their grief with me to publish the transcripts.  Particularly towards his coach Koichi Morishita, parts of whose interview I still have difficulty reading.  Although they do not add up to the full picture I had hoped from the overall concept of the original project, I hope that reading them helps you as it has me to better understand some parts of what happened in the development, dissolution and tremendous loss of Samuel Wanjiru.

I will publish the interviews this week in the order I conducted them, followed by a conclusion.  The interviews are long but will reward time spent with them.

Tuesday: Stephen Mayaka, Wanjiru's friend and mentor during his days in Japan.
Wednesday: Koichi Morishita, Wanjiru's coach at Toyota Kyushu and the Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist.
Thursday: Yu Mitsuya and Masato Imai, Wanjiru's teammates at Toyota Kyushu.
Friday: Yasuto Kimura, Wanjiru's companion at overseas races following his departure from Japan.
Saturday: In conclusion..... (delayed until Monday)

I am indebted to Jonathan Beverley, Richard Finn, Yusuke Inoue, Daiji Kitamura and Mika Tokairin for their assistance in these interviews and to Imai, Kimura, Mayaka, Mitsuya, Morishita and Mary Wittenberg for their time and words.

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Takeshi Soh Reflects on 54 Years in the Sport on His Retirement as Asahi Kasei Head Coach

After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tokumoto and Yamakawa Take Over at Shibaura Kogyo in Quest for Hakone Debut

In a quest to make its first Hakone Ekiden, Shibaura Kogyo University announced this week that former Surugadai University head coach Kazuyoshi Tokumoto , 45, and former Reitaku University head coach Tatsuya Yamakawa , 40, will take over as head and assistant coach starting in April. In a statement issued by the university Tokumoto commented, "I'm pleased to have been named head coach of Shibaura Kogyo University's track and field team. When they came to feel me I could feel their passion about achieving their dream of becoming the first science and technology university to compete in the Hakone Ekiden. I was happy to accept because I felt that this was an environment in which I could grow too. It's my responsibility to help them become the 45th university ever to compete in Hakone. I hope that you'll enjoy Act II of the Tokumoto Show and cheer us on as Shibaura Kogyo heads down the road to Hakone." Yamakawa's comments read, "I arrived early in Feb...
1 comment
Read more

Nanjing World Indoor Championships Day One Japanese Results

Indoor track isn't much of a thing in Japan, but there's still a small national team at this weekend's Nanjing World Indoor Championships . High jumpers Naoto Hasegawa and Sota Haraguchi were the only Japanese athletes in action in final on Friday's opening day. Hasegawa became the first Japanese man to make top 8 in a World Indoor Championships high jump final, taking 7th with a 2.20 m SB. Haraguchi was 13th of 13 with a 2.14 m SB clearance. In the men's 400 m Fuga Sato made it through the opening heats with a 46.60 SB for 2nd in Heat 3, while Ryo Yoshikawa ran only 47.47 for 5th in Heat 2 and did not advance. Sato was eliminated in the semifinals after he was last in SF1 in 48.31. Yoshiki Kinashi and Naoki Nishioka both made it through the men's 60 m heats, Kinashi running 6.60 m for 2nd in Heat 8 and Nishioka 6.67 for 3rd in Heat 4. In the semifinals both were eliminated, Nishioka improving to 6.62 for 4th in SF3 and Kinashi running 6.63 for 5th in SF2....
Post a Comment
Read more