Skip to main content

Mibu Town Government Hires Kenyan Runner Ngandu As Civic Running Coach



Video: Benjamin Ngandu passing 12 people to win the 2013 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage for Nihon University.

 Placing a high importance on promoting a healthy lifestyle among its citizens through sports, the town government of Mibu, Tochigi has hired a Kenyan amateur runner who was once a star on the university ekiden and corporate marathon circuits to serve as running coach for local residents. The new civic employee is Benjamin Ngandu, 29.

On Aug. 3 at Mibu Town Hall Ngandu received an official letter of appointment from mayor Kazuya Kosuge. Competing against other top Kanto Region universities, Ngandu was a stage winner at the prestigious Hakone Ekiden, and as a corporate league runner he had success as a marathoner including a win at the 2016 Osaka Marathon. Three years ago he retired, taking a job at a company in Aichi and continuing to run as an amateur.

Ngandu will coach local residents in preparation for January's municipal ekiden, focusing on work with junior high school students and promotion of civic health through exercise. Mayor Kosuge commented, "I'm looking forward to seeing our next generation of athletes take shape through the eyes of a pro. I want our children to experience the importance of learning running form." Ngandu said, "As a coach I want to help them develop both stamina and speed. I hope that together the people of Mibu and I can work together to better ourselves. Thank you for this chance."

Translator's note: In the summer of 2015 Ngandu tested positive for norandrosterone at a race in Europe and was provisionally suspended. Almost two years later he was given a backdated 20-month sentence by Kenyan authorities. During that period he continued to compete in Japan, including the 2016 and 2017 Tokyo Marathons and his win at the 2016 Osaka Marathon, results which were later annuled. The IAAF appealed to the CAS and won its case, getting a four-year suspension for Ngandu that began with the date of the CAS ruling instead of being backdated to his initial suspension start date. That suspension is set to expire in November, 2021. Mayor Kosuge and Ngandu are both graduates of Nihon University.

source articles:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/utsunomiya/20200803/1090007431.html
https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/iaaf-successful-in-cas-appeal-against-the-anti-doping-agency-of-kenya-athletics-kenya-benjamin-ngandu-ndegwa
https://apnews.com/1ae6b31d90e448de82b22c1139e2f858
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for the backstory aspect. Shame NHK readers won't see it.
August 4, 2020 at 1:47 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...
1 comment
Read more

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

70th Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...
1 comment
Read more