Skip to main content

Finding Honor in University Running, Mogusu Says "I Love the Ekiden More Than Anything"

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2008120200064

translated and edited by Brett Larner

"Everything I've experienced in Japan has been precious to me," smiles Yamanashi Gakuin University's Mekubo Mogusu, 21, gently. The driving force behind his school's ekiden team, the Kenyan exchange student says, "I love running the ekiden more than anything else." Having chosen university over a professional career in order to compete in the Hakone Ekiden, the senior now awaits his final run on Hakone's legendary roads.

Not liking Japanese food when he first arrived as a high school student, life in Japan was initially hard for Mogusu, but he persevered and with time adapted. Now, even while carrying out incredibly severe training, Mogusu holds down a part-time job in a restaurant in order to be able to send money to his parents back home.

This kind of single-minded dedication has helped the exchange student to hone his cutting edge in Japan. At last year's Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon he ran one of the world's all-time top ten best performances, a mark which showed Mogusu was competitive internationally even though a student. Yamanashi Gakuin head coach Masahito Ueda, 49, commented, "When he graduated from high school he must have thought about the money he could make racing and with a jitsugyodan team." Nevertheless, Mogusu chose the honor of running Hakone.

"With a team, I can run too. Handing off the tasuki one to another and together reaching the goal in first place. That is the ekiden." So says Mogusu, having discovered as a university runner the essential nature of the ekiden. Coach Ueda comments, "In my record book of all the good and bad from the last few years, I have to say that what the team learned from Mogusu about the honor of the ekiden is incalculable."

Mogusu's dream for the future is "Winning the gold medal in the London Olympics marathon." Looking toward next month's Hakone Ekiden, he says, "Right now my condition is no good at all, but in January I'm going to show everyone my absolute best," smiling again with the radiance of youth. After graduation he plans to remain based in Japan, joining the Aidem jitsugyodan team to support his training for London.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr