Daniel Waweru Irungu touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Wednesday this week, aboard a Qatar Airways flight from Doha. He had connected at Doha’s Hamad International Airport from an eight-hour flight from Beijing.
Irungu was in China for a month, competing on the Chinese road running circuit to eke out a living, victory in the Anji Half Marathon in Huzhou - which is in East China’s Zhejian province – among the significant achievements on the tour.
Over 5,000 runners from 10 countries featured at the challenging Anji Half Marathon on April 20 which Irungu won in one hour, seven minutes and 35 seconds with compatriot Mary Wangari Kuria taking the women’s race in 1:21:48.
The scenic course, which started and ended at the “Two Mountains” Future Science and Technology City Cultural and Art Centre in Anji’s Lingfeng National Tourist Resort, took runners through a valley, blooming canola flowers, tea fields and terraced fields. Irungu could have stayed in China longer to cash in on his peak racing form, but had to make it back home by Wednesday this week, in time for his mentor and Olympic marathon legend Samuel Kamau Wanjiru’s 14th anniversary memorial on Thursday.
From the airport on Wednesday, Irungu drove straight to Nyahururu’s Muthiga home of the late Wanjiru’s mother, Hannah Wanjiru, to spend some time in reflection. Irungu is one of several athletes that benefited from the fallen two-time Chicago Marathon champion Wanjiru’s benevolence.
Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the 2009 London Marathon.
Photo credit: File | Reuters
Wanjiru, also a two-time World Marathon Majors champion, 2009 London Marathon (2:05:10) and 2007 Fukuoka Marathon (2:06:39) winner, died tragically from a fall off the balcony of his Muthiga mansion on May 15, 2011. He was just 24, and some of his career highlights included the two victories in Chicago (2:05:41 in 2009 and 2:06:23 in 2010).
Wanjiru also held five world records in his short but stellar career – 15 kilometres (41:29 in Doha, 2002); 20km (55:31 in Den Haag, Netherlands, 2007) alongside three in the half marathon (59:16 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2005; 58:53 at Ras Al Khaimah, Saudi Arabia, in 2007 and 58:33 in Den Haag in 2007).
“I just had to make it back home by May 14…. We used to push one another with Wanjiru in training, and whenever I had personal challenges, he would help me out,” Irungu reflects.
“He used to encourage me, telling me never to give up and that I’ll one day succeed like him. He always taught us the virtues of perseverance. He would assist us with running shoes and training equipment, and whenever we had financial challenges, he would also help. He assisted in everything,” says Irungu, who started training with Wanjiru in 2003.
Irungu would go on and race internationally for the first time at the 2014 Seoul Marathon, finishing 13th.
“It was my first big race, and I hadn’t matured as a marathoner. I subsequently ran in the Seoul Marathon four times, having been introduced to the race by one Joel Kimaru. I then shifted my race base to China where to date I compete in the marathon and half marathon races,” narrated Irungu, who in 2016 joined the Rosa Associati management team that also handled Wanjiru. In 2015, he finished third in Spain’s Castellon Marathon in 2:14:10.
Marathon runner Daniel Waweru Irungu at the mausoleum of 2008 Olympic marathon champion Samuel Kamau Wanjiru in Nyahururu on May 14, 2025.
Photo credit: Elias Makori | Nation Media Group
Irungu is one of over 30 athletes that Wanjiru used to support financially and with training equipment as soon as he started earning from running while in Japan, having graduated from the Ikuei Gakuen High School in Sendai which he joined in 2002 as an exchange student at the age of 16.
Wanjiru would then take up professional athletics as a ‘jutsugyo dan’ runner (‘corporate team’ runner) at the Team Toyota Jidosha Kyushu of Miyawaka, Fukuoka Prefecture, under coach Koichi Morishita, Japan’s marathon silver medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
Like Irungu, Joel Kimaru landed back in Nairobi on Wednesday this week from racing assignments in Asia, South Korea to be precise, in time for the commemoration of Wanjiru’s 14th anniversary. Kimaru, like Wanjiru, was a beneficiary of a Kenya-Japan educational exchange programme that also landed him at a Japanese high school.
“I was ahead of Wanjiru in school, having joined high school in Japan 1999,” Kimaru flashes back. “I knew Wanjiru before he left for Japan, as we trained together and competed in cross country running. I was at Karaguini Secondary School in my Nyandarua home, and he was still in primary school, but we could meet at the cross-country races.
“He is used to race with the late Samuel Kabiru with whom they went to Ikuei Gakuen High School in Sendai, Japan. James Wainaina was also in the same school, the three of them beneficiaries of the exchange programme with Japan,” explains Kimaru who schooled at the Aomori Yamada High School in Aomori Prefecture, Northern Japan.
A school known for its sporting excellence, Aomori Yamada, incidentally, won the All Japan High School Football Tournament for the fourth time at the National Stadium in Tokyo last year, defeating Omi High School from Shiga Prefecture 3-1 in the final.
Samuel Wanjiru breaks the tape to win the 2008 Olympics marathon race at the Birds Nest in Beijing.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Kimaru returned back to Kenya after completing his high school and kept training with Wanjiru whenever the Olympic champion was in Kenya.
“He used to help many people,” Kimaru pays tribute to Wanjiru.
“We were many of us at the time, over 30 athletes, who benefited from Wanjiru’s generosity. He would help us travel abroad, even paying for our passport and visa fees, and would also offer us his vehicles to take us from Nyahururu to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport whenever we travelled abroad.
“Whenever he heard an athlete had a chance to travel abroad for races, he never wanted such a chance to go to waste and would do everything possible to ensure that we travelled.
“Even during training, he made sure we had good meals, and whenever he heard that athlete’s child had been sent home for school fees, he would chip in and help in paying the fees. He made sure the children were back in school.
“Wanjiru was a great human being and very generous. We miss him a great deal… He had his own camp with 10 athletes whom he catered for personally,” narrated Kimaru, who also ran a training camp for athletes in Nyahururu that was forced shut during the coronavirus pandemic.
Samuel Wanjiru celebrates after winning the 2008 Olympics marathon race at the Birds Nest in Beijing.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Having relocated from his Baringo home, the aspiring marathoner would train with Wanjiru’s group, hoping for that big breakthrough. But with Wanjiru’s tragic death, his dreams were shattered and he never really made it to the big stage.
“We used to go for the long runs together, and he would make available his pick-up trucks for us, carrying water and other refreshments for us,” Kemboi, a 63:00 half marathoner, recalls. “He would buy us meals and made sure we were comfortable. We would go for training in places like Nakuru, Rumuruti and other places,” adds Kemboi who was consigned to the local race circuit after Wanjiru’s death.
“His death affected me psychologically and in training for several weeks and months,” Kemboi revisited as he headed out for his morning run on Thursday, the day of the 14th anniversary of Wanjiru’s death.
In her ruling dated October 18, 2023, after an inquest that lasted about a decade, Lady Justice Wendy Kagendo Micheni ruled out murder in Wanjiru’s fatal May 15, 2011, fall. Justice Micheni passionately appealed for mentorship and support for Kenya’s sports stars to avoid such tragedies like that which befell Wanjiru who left many of his proteges hopeless.
