Mekubo Mogusu

Mekubo Job Mogusu (born 25 December 1986) is a Kenyan long distance runner who specialises in road running, particularly the half marathon. An emigrant to Japan, he has won the Sapporo Half Marathon on three occasions and the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon twice – he is the course record holder for both of the races. Mogusu was also part of the Kenyan ekiden marathon relay team which set the world record time of 1:57:06 at the 2005 Chiba Ekiden. He has a half marathon best of 59 minutes and 48 seconds and competed at the 2008 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.

Mogusu emigrated to Japan as a youth and attended high school before moving on to Yamanashi Gakuin University. The decision to continue his studies further, rather than begin running professionally, confused his Kenyan peers. However, Mogusu emphasised the importance of continuing to compete in ekiden marathon road relay at college level, under the guidance of the University coach Ueda. He had his first major circuit win in July 2005 when he won the Sapporo Half Marathon, recording a personal best time of 1:01:28 and beating Olympic medallist Erick Wainaina among others. Further success came in December when he teamed up with Josephat Ndambiri, Martin Mathathi, Daniel Mwangi, Onesmus Nyerere and John Kariuki to run at the Chiba Ekiden. Running the fourth leg of 10 km, Mogusu extended the Kenyan team's lead with a time of 27:56, helping the team to a new world record time of 1:57:06 for the marathon road relay event. He continued to have success in ekiden competitions, being defeated only once in nine races and recording stage records on five occasions.

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