In the early days of the Hakone Ekiden Koreans were the first group from outside Japan to run and make an impact on the event's history. 60 years after the first two Koreans ran Hakone, Kenyan Douglas Wakiihuri became the first Kenyan to come to Japan to run when he joined the S&B corporate team. After he won the 1987 Rome World Championships marathon and took silver a year later in the Seoul Olympics the door was open for Kenyan and other African athletes to follow Wakiihuri's lead to the corporate leagues, to universities, and even to high schools.
Tsutomu Akiyama was responsible for bringing the first two Kenyans to Hakone, recruiting Joseph Otwori and Kennedy Manyisa Isena to go to Yamanashi Gakuin University. "I went to Kenya to see what the people and environment were like," he told JRN. "I watched a cross-country race and thought, 'We have to get someone like that to run for Yamanashi Gakuin.'" Yamanashi Gakuin had debuted at Hakone in 1987 with a last-place finish in 15th and improved to 11th in 1988, but when Otwori and Manyisa came on board in 1989 they made a splash.
Otwori won the Second Stage where most of the best Japanese athletes ran, and Yamanashi Gakuin placed 7th. In 1990 he won it again, and Yamanashi Gakuin improved to 4th. In 1991, another win, and with Manyisa taking 7th on the Third Stage Yamanashi Gakuin moved up to 2nd. Their senior year in 1992 Otwori was beaten by Juntendo University's Kazumi Honkawa, but between his 2nd-place finish, Manyisa breaking the Third Stage CR, and the rest of the team growing to fill the space between them Yamanashi Gakuin won.
And the rest was history. Every year since then, African runners have been a part of the Hakone landscape, sometimes only one, sometimes as many as seven, but always a presence, 34 of them from Kenya and two from Ethiopia. Some learned Japanese, some could barely stumble through a self-introduction. Some were only targets for the top Japanese, and some excelled. Some provided some of the best racing of the modern Hakone era, and some delivered some of the biggest heartbreaks.
Stephen Mayaka followed Otwori and Manyisa at Yamanashi Gakuin and led them to two-straight wins in 1994 and 1995, breaking the Second Stage CR en route to the 1994 victory. Running for Asia University, in 1996 Ethiopian Bizunesh Yae Tura joined Chuo University's Kim Gyeomdo in 1939 as the only two non-Japanese athletes ever to win the First Stage. Job Mekubo Mogusu, sub-60 for the half marathon three times his junior year at Yamanashi Gakuin at a time when 59 minutes meant something, won fans with his lovable personality and became the first runner since Waseda's Toshihiko Seko to break the Second Stage record twice. Nihon University's Daniel Muiva Kitonyi expressing discomfort with the "God of the Mountain" label applied to uphill Fifth Stage stars and asking to be called "Mountain King" after beating previous God of the Mountain Daichi Kamino of Aoyama Gakuin University to win the stage. Ethiopian Derese Workneh made history when Takushoku University named him captain of its Hakone team his senior year. Vincent Yegon set the current records for the Second, Third and Fourth Stages over the course of his career at Tokyo Kokusai University, and his second year he became the first non-Japanese athlete named Hakone MVP.
All of them motivated the best Japanese to get better. No African has gone all four years without getting beaten by at least one Japanese athlete at Hakone, not even Otwori, Mogusu or Yegon. But while they've played a role in elevating the overall level, outside of Yamanashi Gakuin's 1992, 1994 and 1995 teams, no other school with an African athlete has won. For the most part developing teams have used Africans to gain a foothold, but not a single one of the top-tier programs has ever recruited one.
And while every male Kenyan Olympic marathon medalist from Wakiihuri in 1988 through Samuel Wanjiru in 2008 ran in Japan's corporate leagues, not a single African who has run Hakone has ever gone on to do anything internationally significant post-collegiately. Not one. Nothing illustrates that better than Wanjiru and Mogusu. Akiyama scouted both and brought them to Japan a day apart. "In high school they raced a lot, and Mogusu usually beat Wanjiru," Akiyama told JRN. But after graduating, Wanjiru went to the Toyota Kyushu corporate team and on to world records and Olympic gold. Mogusu went for Hakone stardom, but after graduating from Yamanashi Gakuin couldn't translate that into any kind of success.
As with most of the Japanese athletes, for people like Mogusu and Nihon's Charles Ndungu, who left the corporate leagues to go to Nihon because he wanted to run Hakone, the chance for a day in the sun there may be enough. For others, it provides a pathway to a good corporate league team, some of which prefer non-Japanese athletes who already have a basic handle on the language and customs. But whatever the questions about Hakone's legacy for the African athletes who spend four of their best years in pursuit of a 100-year-old vision, with more of them than ever coming into the circle of Hakone alumni there will always be the hope that one of them will break through to the kind of glory Shizo Kanakuri envisioned for the Japanese a century ago.
African Athletes in the Hakone Ekiden, 1989-2023
Joseph Otwori, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
1989 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:08:23, Yamanashi Gakuin 7th overall
1990 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:08:18, Yamanashi Gakuin 4th overall
1991 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:08:40, Yamanashi Gakuin 2nd overall
1992 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:09:11, Yamanashi Gakuin 1st overall
Kennedy Manyisa Isena, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
1989 Hakone Ekiden - 15th, Eighth Stage, 1:13:16, Yamanashi Gakuin 7th overall
1991 Hakone Ekiden - 3rd, Seventh Stage, 1:06:23 Yamanashi Gakuin 2nd overall
1992 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Third Stage, 1:03:45 - CR, Yamanashi Gakuin 1st overall
Stephen Mayaka, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
1993 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:08:26, Yamanashi Gakuin 2nd overall
1994 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:07:34 - CR, Yamanashi Gakuin 1st overall - CR
1995 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:07:20 (CR), Yamanashi Gakuin 1st overall
1996 Hakone Ekiden - 3rd, Second Stage, 1:09:26, Yamanashi Gakuin DNF on Fourth Stage
Bizunesh Yae Tura, Ethiopia, Asia University
1993 Hakone Ekiden - 6th, First Stage, 1:04:04, Asia 13th overall
1994 Hakone Ekiden - 11th, First Stage, 1:04:26, Asia 12th overall
1995 Hakone Ekiden - 7th, Fourth Stage, 1:05:04, Asia 11th overall
1996 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, First Stage, 1:03:26, Asia 7th overall
Solomon Wachira, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
1997 Hakone Ekiden - 9th, First Stage, 1:05:52, Yamanashi Gakuin 2nd overall
1998 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Third Stage, 1:03:38, Yamanashi Gakuin 3rd overall
1999 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Seventh Stage, 1:04:58, Yamanashi Gakuin 6th overall
David Kariuki, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2000 Hakone Ekiden - 8th, Fourth Stage, 1:04:18, Yamanashi Gakuin 9th overall
2001 Hakone Ekiden - 9th, Second Stage, 1:11:10, Yamanashi Gakuin 9th overall
2002 Hakone Ekiden - 11th, Fifth Stage, 1:18:47, Yamanashi Gakuin 9th overall
2003 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Fourth Stage, 1:01:32, Yamanashi Gakuin 2nd overall
John Kanyi, Kenya, Heisei Kokusai University
2001 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:07:43, Heisei Kokusai 13th overall
Francis Muhia, Kenya, Heisei Kokusai University
2001 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Fourth Stage, 1:06:51, Heisei Kokusai 13th overall
Ombeche Mokamba, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2002 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:08:35, Yamanashi Gakuin 9th overall
2003 Hakone Ekiden - 3rd, Second Stage, 1:08:02, Yamanashi Gakuin 2nd overall
2004 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:09:12, Yamanashi Gakuin 12th overall
2005 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:07:47, Yamanashi Gakuin 14th overall
Simon Ndirangu, Kenya, Nihon University
2005 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Third Stage, 1:03:23, Nihon 3rd overall
2006 Hakone Ekiden - 19th, Second Stage, 1:11:40, Nihon 3rd overall
Job Mekubo Mogusu, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2006 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:07:29, Yamanashi Gakuin 2nd overall
2007 Hakone Ekiden - 6th, Second Stage, 1:08:53, Yamanashi Gakuin 12th overall
2008 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:06:23 - CR, Yamanashi Gakuin 6th overall
2009 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:06:04 - CR, Yamanashi Gakuin 6th overall
Daniel Gitau, Kenya, Nihon University
2007 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Third Stage, 1:03:15, Nihon 2nd overall
2008 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:07:27, Nihon 9th overall
2009 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:07:04, Nihon 7th overall
2010 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:07:37, Nihon 15th overall
Cosmas Ondiba, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2010 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Third Stage, 1:03:04, Yamanashi Gakuin 3rd overall
2011 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Third Stage, 1:02:19, Yamanashi Gakuin 12th overall
2012 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Third Stage 1:01:38 - CR, Yamanashi Gakuin 9th overall
John Maina, Kenya, Takushoku University
2011 Hakone Ekiden - 6th, Second Stage, 1:08:04, Takushoku 7th overall
Benjamin Ngandu, Kenya, Nihon University
2011 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:07:09, Nihon 20th overall
2013 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:08:46, Nihon 15th overall
Duncan Maina Muthee, Kenya, Takushoku University
2012 Hakone Ekiden - 5th, Third Stage, 1:03:20, Takushoku 14th overall
2014 Hakone Ekiden - 4th, Second Stage, 1:08:44, Takushoku 9th overall
Enock Omwamba, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2013 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:09:32, Yamanashi Gakuin 11th overall
2014 Hakone Ekiden - DNF, Second Stage, Yamanashi Gakuin DNF
Daniel Muiva Kitonyi, Kenya, Nihon University
2014 Hakone Ekiden - 10th, Fifth Stage, 1:21:51, Nihon 7th overall
2015 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Fifth Stage, 1:18:45, Nihon 13th overall
2016 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Fifth Stage, 1:18:24, Nihon 11th overall
Dominic Nyairo, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2016 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:07:20, Yamanashi Gakuin 8th overall
2017 Hakone Ekiden - 9th, Second Stage, 1:08:31, Yamanashi Gakuin 17th overall
2018 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:07:15, Yamanashi Gakuin 18th overall
Derese Workneh, Ethiopia, Takushoku University
2016 Hakone Ekiden - 11th, Second Stage, 1:09:29, Takushoku 16th overall
2017 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:07:50, Takushoku 14th overall
2018 Hakone Ekiden - 5th, Second Stage, 1:07:53, Takushoku 8th overall
2019 Hakone Ekiden - 6th, Second Stage, 1:07:47, Takushoku 9th overall
Stanley Siteki, Kenya, Tokyo Kokusai University
2016 Hakone Ekiden - 13th, Second Stage, 1:09:56, Tokyo Kokusai 17th overall
2018 Hakone Ekiden - 20th, Third Stage, 1:07:04, Tokyo Kokusai 17th overall
Muiru Muthoni, Kenya, Soka University
2017 Hakone Ekiden - 4th, Second Stage, 1:08:05, Soka 12th overall
2020 Hakone Ekiden - 11th, Second Stage, 1:07:58, Soka 9th overall
Patrick Mathenge Wambui, Kenya, Nihon University
2017 Hakone Ekiden - 7th, Second Stage, 1:08:16, Nihon 19th overall
2019 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:06:18, Nihon 14th overall
Titus Mogusu, Kenya, Tokyo Kokusai University
2019 Hakone Ekiden - 8th, First Stage, 1:02:50, Tokyo Kokusai 15th overall
Vincent Raimoi, Kenya, Kokushikan University
2019 Hakone Ekiden - 3rd, Second Stage, 1:07:12, Kokushikan 18th overall
2020 Hakone Ekiden - 4th, Second Stage, 1:06:46, Kokushikan 19th overall
2021 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:07:09, Kokushikan 18th overall
2022 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:06:41, Kokushikan 15th overall
Vincent Yegon, Kenya, Tokyo Kokusai University
2020 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Third Stage, 59:25 - CR, Tokyo Kokusai 5th overall
2021 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Second Stage, 1:05:49 - CR, MVP, Tokyo Kokusai 10th overall
2022 Hakone Ekiden - 5th, Second Stage, 1:07:02, Tokyo Kokusai 5th overall
2023 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Fourth Stage, 1:00:00 - CR, MVP, Tokyo Kokusai 11th overall
Joseph Razini Lemeteki, Kenya, Takushoku University
2020 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:06:18, Takushoku 13th overall
2021 Hakone Ekiden - 5th, Second Stage, 1:07:17, Takushoku 15th overall
Charles Ndungu, Kenya, Nihon University
2020 Hakone Ekiden - 12th, Second Stage, 1:08:08, Nihon 18th overall
Philip Muluwa, Kenya, Soka University
2021 Hakone Ekiden - 6th, Second Stage, 1:07:18, Soka 2nd overall
2022 Hakone Ekiden - 2nd, Second Stage, 1:06:41, Soka 7th overall
2023 Hakone Ekiden - 6th, Second Stage, 1:07:29, Soka 8th overall
Paul Onyiego, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2021 Hakone Ekiden - 1st, Fourth Stage, 1:02:15, Yamanashi Gakuin 19th overall
2022 Hakone Ekiden - 4th, Second Stage, 1:06:49, Yamanashi Gakuin 18th overall
James Bunuka, Kenya, Surugadai University
2022 Hakone Ekiden - 19th, Second Stage, 1:10:19, Surugadai 19th overall
Duncan Kisaisa, Kenya, Senshu University
2022 Hakone Ekiden - 20th, Third Stage, 1:06:34, Senshu 20th overall
2023 Hakone Ekiden - 16th, Second Stage, 1:09:05, Senshu 20th overall
Victor Kimutai, Kenya, Josai University
2023 Hakone Ekiden - 11th, Third Stage, 1:02:41, Josai 9th overall
2024 Hakone Ekiden - entered
Boniface Mulwa, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2023 Hakone Ekiden - 5th, Second Stage, 1:07:22, Yamanashi Gakuin 14th overall
Peter Wanjiru, Kenya, Daito Bunka University
2023 Hakone Ekiden - 20th, Second Stage, 1:11:35, Daito Bunka 16th overall
2024 Hakone Ekiden - entered
Peter Kamau, Kenya, Kokushikan University
2023 Hakone Ekiden - 9th, Second Stage, 1:07:54, Kokushikan 19th overall
2024 Hakone Ekiden - entered
Stephen Muthini, Kenya, Soka University
2024 Hakone Ekiden - entered
James Mutuku, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2024 Hakone Ekiden - entered
Brian Kipyegon, Kenya, Yamanashi Gakuin University
2024 Hakone Ekiden - entered
Shadrack Kipkemei, Kenya, Nihon University
2024 Hakone Ekiden - entered
Stephen Lemayan, Kenya, Surugadai University
2024 Hakone Ekiden - entered
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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