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by Brett Larner I don't expect that many people will take the considerable time necessary to read the full texts of all four interviews in this series .  I plan to edit the most important quotes from Samuel Wanjiru’s Japanese mentors and colleagues together into a cohesive account of his career from the Japanese point of view, but in the meantime, looking at the commonalities between the interviews and other previously-published details this story emerges, incomplete as it is: Wanjiru was discovered by the Japanese scout Shunichi Kobayashi and sent to Sendai Ikuei H.S. in 2002. At Sendai Ikuei, he was educated and developed by Takao Watanabe , who focused not only on development as an athlete but also on psychological and personal development.  Watanabe receives unanimous credit in Japan as the primary influence on Wanjiru's mental and spiritual growth.  Watanabe introduced Wanjiru to Kenyan Stephen Mayaka , a longtime resident of Japan who came to assist Wanjiru in h...

The fourth in JRN's series of in-depth, original interviews with the Japanese friends and colleagues of Samuel Wanjiru , this interview with Yasuto Kimura , a popular Tokyo-based coach of amateur runners and a former Hakone Ekiden ace with Chuo University who became close friends with Wanjiru following his departure from the Toyota Kyushu corporate team in 2008, is the most personal of them all. Click here for an introduction to this series of interviews and for links to the previous interviews with Masato Imai, Stephen Mayaka, Yu Mitsuya and Koichi Morishita. Come back tomorrow for the conclusion to the series. Yasuto Kimura interviewed by Brett Larner in Kanda, Tokyo, 7/20/11 © 2011 Brett Larner all rights reserved No part of this interview may be reproduced or quoted without express written permission. photos © 2010 Yasuto Kimura all rights reserved To start off, could you talk about the nature of your relationship with Samuel Wanjiru? People are saying that I might h...

photo © 2007 Dr. Helmut Winter all rights reserved by Brett Larner Last week I was asked to write a dedication to the late Samuel Wanjiru  for a forthcoming book on Kenyan distance running achievements.  Working on it, I felt that it's time to bring completion to another project related to Wanjiru. In the weeks following Wanjiru's death, in response to my article " Wanjiru in the Words of Those Who Knew Him " I was contacted by someone claiming to be a Kenyan journalist proposing to work together on interviewing key people in Wanjiru's life for a feature article in a specific major publication, possibly leading to a book.  The person's credentials seemed to check out and, caring a great deal about the topic, I agreed.  Most of the people who knew Wanjiru best during his days in Japan were gracious enough to agree to interviews with me at a time when their grief was still fresh.  Being pressured to complete my interviews by a deadline I sent transcripts ...