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Former marathon star switches from athletics to music

Xinhua,December 10, 2017 Adjust font size:

NAIROBI, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Douglas Wakiihui won the 1987 Marathon world title in Rome as his president, Daniel Moi, watched from the VIP stand.

He now lives in an upscale city estate west of Nairobi where he records music tracks from his house.

Wakiihuri left Kenya at the age of 19 in 1983 for Japan on a marathon scholarship, and with that he seemed to have disappeared from everyone's radar screen until that memorable moment in Rome.

It was a performance that earned Wakiihuri the national honor of the Silver Star of the Republic of Kenya from President Moi.

Today, the biggest race in the life of Wakiihuri is to be found in the confines of his music studio in his living room where one will find turn-tables, sound mixers, speakers, key boards and computers.

"Be the master of your body. You must figure what works for you best and turn a negative environment into a positive thing," he said.

His living room reflects the dual personality of a man who speaks fluent Japanese, having lived in Japan for a larger part of his life and yet insists Kenya is the only home he knows.

"My first love is running followed by music and then food," he told Xinhua in a recent interview. Wakiihuri's biggest dream presently is to make records that extol the virtues and achievements of Kenya's sporting heroes.

He has amazingly done tracks in a myriad of local Kenyan languages and gets reviews in Japan where some of his songs continue to get good airtime in FM stations there.

Born 55 years ago, Wakiihuri has not lost the enthusiasm for the things he like doing and still runs even as he has big numbers on his age.

He won the London Marathon in 1989 and New York Marathon in 1990 and his happy that Nairobi hosts a major road race in the same league as the two cities.

The former world champion made his debut recording in 2001with a 13-track album titled "Pewa ile poa", Swahili for "To get the best" which was dedicated to the Japanese in appreciation of their hospitality during his stay in the Far East country.

He said he uses music to promote Kenya in Japan. Enditem