John Stephen Akhwari

John Stephen Akhwari (* 1942 ) is a former Tanzanian long-distance runner who specialized in the marathon .

At the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth in 1962 , he finished sixth in the marathon and came in 13th over six miles . In 1963 he finished second in the Athens Marathon .

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, like many other runners, he struggled with the heat and altitude. After 19 km he fell after a collision with competitors. Although he dislocated his shoulder and had his right leg bandaged, he struggled to the finish line, where he was the last runner in 57th place in 3:25:17 h, more than an hour behind the winner Mamo Wolde and almost twenty Minutes behind the penultimate. When the documentary filmmaker Bud Greenspan asked him why he hadn't given up, he replied, "My country didn't send me 5000 miles to get to the start, but to finish."

In 1969 he was in Kampala Central and East African marathon champion. At the British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1970 , he finished ninth in the 10,000 m in 28: 44.0 min and fifth in the marathon in 2:15:05 h with personal bests .

Web links

• Athlete portrait at the ARRS
• John Stephen Akhwari in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ Cui Xiaohuo: A lasting memory: Tanzanian runner . In: China Daily . January 11, 2008
2. ↑ Tanzania's most inspirational athlete ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Olympic Athletes' Hub. May 11, 2016