Primarily known for his work in women's long distance, coach Manabu Kawagoe passed away suddenly on Aug. 22 after suffering a stroke. He was 63. A native of Kagoshima, in his days as an athlete Kawagoe ran at Kagoshima Minami H.S. and Waseda University. He was a member of 2 Hakone Ekiden champion teams at Waseda and won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the National University Championships.
After graduating from Waseda Kawagoe joined Shiseido, going on to serve as assistant coach and then head coach. He coached top female athletes like 2008 Chicago Marathon 3rd-placer Kiyoko Shimahara, 10000 m national champion Yoshiko Fujinaga and marathoners Yuri Kano and Akemi Ozaki, and in 2006 led Shiseido to its first National Corporate Women's Ekiden victory.
In 2007 he left. Shiseido to form the Second Wind pro team, a new model that brought together his top pro women together with amateurs and junior athletes. In 2011 he became head coach of the Edion corporate team, and in 2017 he returned to Shiseido. Under his leadership Shiseido scored a podium finish at the 2017 National Corporate Women's Ekiden.
In 2021 he once again left Shiseido to go back to Edion, where he took over coaching international-level race walker Nanako Fujii. In April, 2024 he was appointed professor of humanities at Tokai University's Shizuoka campus and took over as head of its new women's ekiden team with the goal of qualifying for the Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden national championships.
Even after leaving Edion for Tokai Kawagoe continued coaching Fujii. At February's 20 km Race Walk National Championships Fujii set a national record of 1:26:33 to score her third-straight national title, with Kawagoe smiling at the finish line as he welcomed her home. According to an involved party, Kawagoe was with Fujii on a training camp at the time of his death.
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translated by Brett Larner
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