Kenyan-born Mayaka has made it big in Japan

Last year, an interesting incident was reported in Tokyo when, on a morning jog, a Kenyan athlete lost his way in the city’s concrete jungle and ended up taking refuge at a local police station awaiting help.

And since he didn’t speak Japanese and the local police didn’t know any English either, efforts to trace the athlete’s residence were quite complicated.

But when the athlete mentioned the name Stephen Mayaka, the Tokyo police officers finally got the clue they needed to help him out of his predicament.

A call to Mayaka sorted out the issue and the athlete’s ordeal finally ended as he found his way back to his apartment, seven hours after he had set out on what he had expected to be a routine, incident-free, 30-minute morning jog.

Similar buildings

“In Tokyo, most of the buildings and streets look very much alike and for a visitor who doesn’t understand Japanese, getting lost is quite easy. This was the case with this unfortunate athlete,” Mayaka said in a recent interview with Lifestyle.

“Fortunately, the police in Tokyo knew me and had my number so they called me to pick up the athlete,” he explained.

Mayaka is a household name in Japan, being the first foreign athletics coach in this Asian nation that adores marathon running.

Born in Kisii and now holding a Japanese passport, Mayaka has been behind the success of many young Kenyan athletes in Japan and has recently been associated with the rise of Kenya’s Olympic marathon champion, Samuel Kamau Wanjiru.

He is currently also head track and field coach at the Sozo Gakuen University besides being the personal trainer and manager of many Kenyan and Japanese runners.
Kenyan athlete

Mayaka first landed in Japan as a Kenyan athlete on December 24, 1990, and immediately made an impact, winning a number of top road races and marathons, quickly becoming a household name in his new abode.

As a fresh-faced student at Kisii’s Kiomiti Secondary School, he would have hardly imagined travelling to Japan, let alone taking up Japanese citizenship and becoming a sports celebrity.

Some of his triumphs, as a member of the Yamanashi Gakuin University in Yamanashi Prefecture (province), came in the Japan National Championships, the Hakone Ekiden the All Japan Inter-University Championships (in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres races) and thrice in the Sapporo International Marathon.

He subsequently represented Kenya at three editions of the World University Games in New York, Sicily and Fukuoka, winning silver medals in the latter two.

He had personal best times of 13 minutes, 28.45 seconds in the 5,000m, 28:00.25 (10,000m) and 61 minutes and 15 seconds in the half marathon.

The 36-year-old Mayaka also won the prestigious Sapporo Half Marathon from 1995 to 1997, then running for various top clubs like the Team Daiei and Hitachi Cable.

Mayaka eventually settled down with a Japanese girl, Sachiyo, and the couple finally tied the knot in 1998 with Sachiyo taking up the Kisii names, Moraa Mayaka. The couple has a daughter, Yuri Jerusha Mayaka, and son, Chui Hiromu Mayaka.

“Both children take up the names of my parents who are both deceased,” Mayaka says.