http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P2009042900039&genre=L1&area=K00 translated by Brett Larner This summer a student runner in Kyoto will have the honor of wearing his mother country's national colors in an international competition for the first time. An alumnus of Kyoto Gaidai Nishikoto High School's track and field team, Moroccan Hassan Boumagoul (22) has been chosen for his country's team for the World Student Games, to be held July 4-9 in Serbia. Having resigned from his jitsugyodan team last summer, this spring Hassan was accepted into Kyoto's Ryokoku Junior College. "Japan suits me better than anywhere else," Hassan says. Hassan came to Japan in 2002, running in the National High School Track and Field Championships 5000 m all three of his years at Gaidai Nishi. After graduation he joined Fukuoka-based Team Toyota Kyushu, where he trained alongside future Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya. In May last year he...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007