Daniel Njenga is a longtime member of the Yakult corporate team, formerly as an athlete and currently as part of its coaching staff. On June 8 Kenyan media published a detailed article credited to Peter Mwangi claiming that Njenga had been kidnapped during a carjacking two days earlier while picking up his daughter from school. Longtime Njenga associate Brendan Reilly tweeted a link to the article, but after retweeting it in Japanese JRN received a tweet from a Yakult runner saying that he had talked to Njenga, who was at home as usual. The Yakult athlete subsequently deleted the tweet, but JRN confirmed with another source that Njenga is safe at home and that the article by Mwangi is a fabrication.
With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that Sis
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