Blind Japanese makes a marathon effort
16 Jan 2009, 0517 hrs IST, Kunaal Majgaonkar, TNN
MUMBAI: However cruel a handicap may be, it leaves you with choices. It can
limit,
but it can also liberate. There are those like 43-year-old Yuichi Takahashi who
dig
deep into their reserves to mock their disabilities.
A visually impaired athlete from Japan, Takahashi, who looks like Jackie Chan
with
goggles on, is in the city to run the Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon. The
ready
smile that springs to his face belies the years of struggle he has seen.
Life in Tokyo was beautiful until one day in 1996 when Takahashi suddenly
couldn’t
see. "I was so devastated with what had happened that suicide seemed liberating.
I realised that there would be many things that I couldn’t do any more,
including
running, something I loved to do even as a child," he recalls.
But a chance hearing about the paralympic games on a television show put him on
the
path to redemption. "I decided to trade suicidal equipment for a pair of shoes.
I
took part in competitions, won a few and gained confidence," says the gold
medallist
of the T12 marathon at the paralympic games in Athens in 2004.
Race followed race and standing on podiums across the globe became a habit. And
then
something even more special happened. In 2002, at a local sports club he met
Yoshiko,
a pretty co-member who would end up running life’s race with him. Yoshiko was a
pharmacist
who specialised in eye medication, apart from being a sports enthusiast. "The
connect
was instant," he smiles.
"My wife and my running shoes are the two things that make living my life
worthwhile.
The walking stick that people use with so much despair is in fact an object that
has given me so much respect everywhere. That stick has no race, creed or class
and
I love the fact," he says.
This is Takahashi’s first trip to Mumbai. "I hope to do the run in two hours and
30 minutes. And when I run at the paralympic games in London in 2012, I would
love
to run beside a visually impaired competitor from this city," he says. During
this
marathon, his wife will double as Takahashi’s guide for the second half of his
42
km run (a 27-yearold friend of Takahashi will be his guide in the first half).
The
interview with TOI over, Takahashi bows to say goodbye—the traditional Japanese
movement
suggesting that life can bend you, but whether you break or not is up to you.
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