Shigeru So

Shigeru Sō ( Japanese 宗 茂 , Sō Shigeru ; born January 9, 1953 in Usuki ) is a former Japanese marathon runner .

In 1976 he qualified third in the Lake Biwa Marathon for the Summer Olympics in Montreal , where he finished 20th. In the same year he was fourth in the Fukuoka Marathon in 2:14:59 h. In 1978 he won the Beppu-Ōita marathon with the world's fastest time of 2:09:06 and was third at Lake Biwa and in Fukuoka. In 1979 he won at Lake Biwa and came second in the pre-Olympic marathon in Moscow . He also came in second place at the end of the year in Fukuoka, whereupon he was nominated for the second time for the Olympic Games; However, the boycott of his country prevented participation in the Summer Olympics in Moscow .

In 1981 he won the Beppu--ita marathon again and came third in Fukuoka. In 1983, the Fukuoka Marathon again served as an Olympic qualifying race. Shigeru Sō qualified third (and second best Japanese) as did his twin brother Takeshi , who came fourth.

At the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles , however, it was Takeshi who came out on top in fourth, while Shigeru only came in 17th.

In 1985 Shigeru won the Tokyo International Men's Marathon and the Beijing Marathon - at the same time as his brother Takeshi as second. At the end of his career, Shigeru finished fifth in the 1989 Beppu-Ōita Marathon.

By then he had already become a coach for Asahi Kasei 's team. Among the athletes he supervised was Kōichi Morishita , who won an Olympic silver medal in Barcelona in 1992 .

Web links

• Shigeru Sō in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )