by Brett Larner
With 2008 at an end JRN takes a look back at some of its the highs and lows.
January
The new year began with Samuel Wanjiru's final major ekiden appearance in the aptly-named New Year Ekiden, but he passed almost unnoticed behind a legion of Kenyan stars shoehorned into one of the shortest legs of the Japanese professional men's ekiden championships. Rikuren officials justified this trend in the major ekidens by saying that Japanese fans don't like seeing foreign runners dominating home-grown athletes and that Africans are just physically superior, then later in the year attacked Japanese marathoners for their inability to keep up with exceptional performances by Africans in the Olympics and at the Fukuoka International Marathon. Wanjiru was 4th on the 11.8 km 3rd stage in 31:17, with Team Nissin Shokuhin's Masai Kenyan Gideon Ngatuny winning the stage in 30:59.
Team Konica Minolta returned to the winner's circle thanks in large part to a half marathon…