Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...
1 comment
Read more

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...
1 comment
Read more

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more