Shizo Kanakuri
Shizo Kanakuri ( Kanaguri Shisō or Kanakuri Shizō, August 20, 1891 – November 13, 1984) was a Japanese marathon runner and one of the early leaders of track and field athletics in Japan.
He set a new world record of 2'32:45 in the qualifying round of the 1912 Summer Olympics in 1911, and improved the previous record by 27 minutes. He has been celebrated as "Father of marathon" in Japan.
He is best known for disappearing during the marathon race in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He lost his consciousness during the race due to the heat and was cared for by a farming family. He returned to Japan without notifying race officials. Swedish authorities considered him missing for 50 years before discovering that he was living in Japan and had competed in intervening Olympic marathons. In 1966 he was contacted by Swedish Television and offered to complete his run. He accepted and completed theMarathon in 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds.
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