Paralympian wheelchair racing athlete Masazumi Soejima clinched his 14th title at the Honolulu Marathon on Sunday.
Paralympian Soejima powered to victory on Sunday at the 51st Honolulu Marathon.
The 53-year-old won the prestigious marathon for the first time in 2005, when he wrapped up the 42.195-kilometer course in just one hour, thirty minutes, and thirty-two seconds, surpassing the previous winner’s record by more than three minutes.
Soejima’s victory
After his maiden triumph, the Japanese wheelchair racer went on to win five more times (until 2010), with only Krige Schabort of the United States ending his winning streak.
In 2013, however, Soejima took back his throne and blazed to the finish line in an astonishing time of one hour, thirty-one minutes, and fourteen seconds. He then went on to win the succeeding races until 2019. But with the COVID-19 pandemic raging nationally and around the globe in the following year, Honolulu Marathon organizers decided to cancel their 2020 race. In 2021 and 2022, two Americans won the marathon, Tyler Byers (with a record of 1:42:57) and Valera “Jacob” Allen (with a record of 1:46:48).
This year, Soejima once again made headlines when he placed first at the event for the fourteenth time.
In a post-marathon interview, Soejima was asked by Hawaii News Now reporter Casey Lund about his victory.
“On the highway, there was like a wind against it, so it was very tough. But on the way to town, the wind was helping him, so it was easy coming,” Soejima’s interpreter said.
Soejima was then asked what he intended to do following the marathon, to which he responded that he had no big plans other than having a wonderful dinner.
Soejima’s other feats
Soejima competed in the Summer Paralympics twice: in 2004 in Athens, Greece, and in 2008 in Beijing, China. He won a bronze medal in Japanese 4 × 400 m relay in 2004.
In 2011, Soejima dominated the other two big marathons in the US, the New York and Boston Marathons, claiming first place in the events.
During that time, Japan was going through tribulations as they went through two horrible disasters: the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. And Soejima said that he had made a promise to win that year in order to cheer up his people.
True to his word, Soejima was able to clinch the title and thus became the first Japanese man to win the event, etching his name in the annals of its history.
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