Japanese man dribbles soccer ball 2,000 km across India
A 31-year-old Japanese man has achieved the feat of dribbling a soccer ball for about 2,000 kilometers across India, reaching his goal of New Delhi 2½ months after leaving Kolkata.
After breaking the finish tape at the Japanese Embassy in the Indian capital Thursday, Nozomu Hagihara exchanged hugs with friends who supported him through the endeavor, tears of joy in his eyes.
Hagihara, who is working to contribute to Indian society through soccer, plans to apply for a Guinness World Record for the longest journey dribbling a soccer ball. His accomplishment far exceeds the current record, held by an Australian man who dribbled 337 kilometers in seven days in 2023.
After playing soccer for 19 years in Japan, including on a professional club's youth team and at university, Hagihara came to India in 2021 as a staff member of a nongovernmental organization.
He founded a soccer team for children, FC Nono, in the eastern state of Bihar, which is said to be among the poorest states in the country.
Hagihara, from Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, has tackled gender education using soccer as a starting point and helped rehabilitate young people who had committed crimes, while witnessing issues in India such as persistent discrimination against women and the country's caste system.
He came up with the dribbling challenge to show children in difficult situations how important and joyful it is to try to overcome problems confronting them.
Hagihara found sponsors and started his journey at the eastern city of Kolkata on March 3. He passed places such as Varanasi, a sacred place for Hindus, and Agra, where the Taj Mahal mausoleum stands. He once dribbled a ball for as far as 100 kilometers in a day.
During the journey, he was troubled by heatstroke under the scorching sun, stress fracture, knee pain and mosquitoes. Still, he recalled a promise he made to children and never thought of quitting the challenge.
"It was a long journey full of pain," Hagihara said after arriving at the Japanese Embassy. "But I was able to prove the joy of tackling a challenge."
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