Four Professional athletes from Tanzania will be flying to Japan for the 2022 installment of Nagai Marathon.
The Nagai City Marathon, as per Japanese events’ calendar, takes place on Sunday, October 16, 2022.
The team of runners from Tanzania departs from Dar-es-salaam for Tokyo, on October 11, 2022.
This year, the team of athletes from Tanzania is being led by the former Tanzanian ace marathon runner Juma Ikangaa.
Runner Ikangaa is also the current Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Public Relations Ambassador at the JICA office in Dar-es-salaam.
Juma Ikangaa happens to be the historical winner of Tokyo International Marathon events of 1984 and 1986.
The Tanzania Marathon Team which also participated in previous athletics events in Japan seems to have also been selected to participate in the Nagai Marathon 2022.
In conjunction with the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, Nagai City as the hosting precinct has been engaged in a series of communications with the United Republic of Tanzania.
Alphonce Felix Simbu, the seventh runner-up in the men’s marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will also be part of the half-marathon division.
Except as it is usually the case with most Tanzanian athletes, Simbu doesn’t seem to have much knowledge of the forthcoming event.
At least as proved by his fleeting comment when a journalist phoned him for details.
The Nagai City Marathon takes place on the same date with Tokyo City Half Marathon in Japan.
Names of the other three athletes from Tanzania, heading to Japan will be available later.