Shizo Kanakuri

Kanaguri shiso (Japanese金 栗 四 三; Kanakuri also sHiZo; born August 20, 1891 in Harutomi (now Nagomi ), Kumamoto Prefecture, † 13 November 1983) was a Japanese marathon runner and together with the Sprinter Yahiko Mishima the first Japanese athlete who took part in the Olympic Games. He became famous for a curious incident at the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912.

Kanaguri grew up in southern Japan. He studied in Tokyo, where Kanō Jigorō discovered his talent for running.

He qualified as one of two athletes who should represent Japan for the first time in the Olympic Games. His fellow students raised money so he could make the long journey. To achieve Stockholm, he had 18 days to travel, first by ship to Vladivostok, then the Trans-Siberian Railway by train across Russia and Finland to Sweden. Totally exhausted, he took five days until he could start training again.

The marathon was held on the last day of the Olympics. The extreme heat of 32 ° C made ​​all the athletes to create - the Portuguese Francisco Lázaro even broke together and died the following day. Also Kanaguri was no exception. As he ran through the Stockholm suburb of Sollentuna, at kilometer 30, he was invited by a family that was just sitting in her garden, something to drink and rest. After he had quenched his thirst, and laid himself down, he fell instantly asleep and woke up the next morning, when they had already instructed the police to look for the missing runner.

Allegedly Kanaguri was so ashamed that he initially refused to go back to Japan. Over the next three years Kanaguri then won the national championships in the marathon. In the Summer Olympics 1920, he was ranked 16 in the 1924 Olympics he was forced to retire after he had set up in the same year with a new Asian record 2:36:10.

In 1957 he was awarded the Asahi Prize. In April 1967 he traveled then, 75 years old and a university professor, back to Stockholm, kept his run away from the spot where he had at the time by the rest, and finished 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 3 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds after starting the slowest marathon ever.