Samuel Wanjiru Kamau wins the Fortis Rotterdam Half Marathon (© c)
For many of the corporate track teams in Japan, Kenyan runners are their big guns in the national passion which is ekiden racing. So despite many restrictions on the entry of foreign runners, many corporate track teams along with some high schools and colleges in Japan have been actively recruiting Kenyan and also Ethiopian athletes in recent years.
The first great Kenyan runner who ran for a Japanese corporate track team was Douglas Wakihuri, who moved to Japan to run for S&B Foods track team. Wakihuri, the World champion at the marathon in 1987, won the silver medal at the 1988 Olympic marathon. More recently, Eric Wainaina, who runs for the Konica-Minolta track team, won a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympic Marathon and a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games. Whereas Wakihuri and Wainaina never attended a school in Japan, Daniel Njenga has. Njenga, who set a world junior record at the 3000m steeplechase, attended both high school and college in Japan. He later moved up to the marathon and recorded his best of 2:06:16.
The latest Kenyan sensation in Japan is Samuel Wanjiru, the World Junior 10,000m record holder (26:41.75), who pending the ratification of Haile Gebrselassie’s 58:55 run in January this year is now the former holder of World Half Marathon record (59:16). After graduating from Sendai Ikue high school last March, Wanjiru now runs for Toyota Kyushu, and is coached by Koichi Morishita, a silver medallist at the marathon in the 1992 Olympic Games.
Dislikes the cold weather
“I heard from Mr. Kobayashi that there was a race to select student-runners to attend high school in Japan,” explains Wanjiru. By winning the selection race, Wanjiru was chosen to attend the Sendai Ikue High School located in the northern city of Sendai. “It was cold in Sendai,” said Wanjiru. For Wanjiru, who took only about a year to learn Japanese, the biggest problem in Japan was the cold weather.
As a member of the track team in Sendai Ikue high school, he was expected to be a valuable member of the school’s ekiden team. “I did not know anything about ekiden before I came to Japan,” confessed Wanjiru. “But I now enjoy running ekiden.”
For two-straight years, in the national inter-high school ekiden championships, Wanjiru recorded the best time in the 10Km stage one. So after the first stage, Sendai Ikue high school was always in lead. In his senior year, Wanjiru ran the third stage and recorded a huge best. He turned a 50 seconds deficit to a minute and a half advantage. In the process he passed two runners. “I really enjoy passing other runners,” said Wanjiru. Apparently Wanjiru cannot only run a good ekiden, he now also understands the ekiden. In his junior and senior years in high school, Sendai Ikue high school won the prestigious national inter-high school ekiden championships.
Loving the mud better than the track
Wanjiru also excels at cross country. He has won the Fukuoka Cross Country three-times, while he has twice been victorious at the Chiba Cross Country race. However, Wanjiru did not win any track titles in high school. In the national inter-high school track & field championships, Wanjiru was third, second and third at the 5000m. “We did not do much speed work in high school, because too much speed work leads to injury problems,” explains Wanjiru. The interval training in the Sendai Ikue high school were done with longer distances, mostly around 2000m. The pace of the interval workout was also slow, around 2:45 for each 1000m.
“When I went to Sendai Ikue high school to recruit a Japanese runner, I learned that Sam wanted to run for the Japanese corporate team,” said Morishita. Even when he was in Kenya, Wanjiru knew about Morishita. So although Wanjiru was selected by several corporate teams, because he wanted to run for Morishita, he decided to join Toyota Kyushu. Waniru liked the weather in the southern island of Kyushu, which much warmer than that of Sendai.
Beijing 10,000m medal ambition
Originally, when he joined the Toyota Kyushu team, Wanjiru believed that he lacked speed, and so planned to move up to the marathon as soon as possible. However, after wunning 10,000m in 27:32.43 at the 2005 Hyogo Relays, he started to think more of track races. Ten days later in Shizuoka, Wanjiru further improved his 10,000m personal best to 27:08.00. “For the next three years, I would like to concentrate on shorter distances. I want to medal at 10,000m in Beijing (Olympics), and then move up to the marathon,” said Wanjiru.
“What he needs to do now is to work on his speed and then work on his ability to change pace during the race. He needs such an ability to excel on track,” analyzes Morishita.
World records
His annus mirabilis continued in 2005. On July 10, he won the Sendai Half Marathon in 59:43. Then back on the track at the Golden league meeting in Brussels on 26 August, Wanjiru finished third behind Kenenisa Bekele and Boniface Kiprop, in 26:41.75. It was the World junior record.
“Sam went through the 5000m in 13:09. He started too fast. Had he went through the 5000m in 13:15, he could have broken 26:30,” said Morishita.
“I thought about Sam running the World Half Marathon championships, but there was no guarantee that he can retain his fantastic shape until October,” explained Morishita. So instead Wanjiru ran the Rotterdam Half Marathon on 11 September. “After Sendai, I knew Sam could run the World record at the half marathon,” said Morishita. He was right. Wanjiru won in 59:16.
Looking for races abroad
He plans to make a marathon debut after Beijing, but for now he will concentrate on track and the half marathon. “We don’t have fast pace makers in Japan, so even if I am in great shape, I cannot hope to run a super fast time,” said Wanjiru who like to run more races abroad. “I hope to run 12:50 5000m, 26:15 10000m and 58 minutes half marathon next year,” says Wanjiru at the end of 2005.
Wanjiru has a great plan for after Beijing. “I hope to run 2:06 on my debut marathon,” said Wanjiru.
“I think Sam can eventually set the World record, but I’d rather see him win big races. Sam never gives up during the race, which is a valuable asset for a marathon runner,” analyzes Morishita. He is cultivating what he hopes will be a future great marathon runner. He wants to make Wanjiru a better marathon runner than he himself ever was. Coming from an Olympic silver medallist, that means Olympic Gold.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
