Triumph over adversity

JAPANESE people use the word “ganbaru” a lot. It is hard to translate this into English, but roughly it means to persevere or persist; to keep at it; to hang on; to do one’s best.

And “ganbaru” is the phrase that best describes the resilience of the Japanese in the face of adversity last Sunday.

That was the day their rugby team, the Brave Blossoms, announced to the world that Japan was now a fully fledged rugby power, defeating Scotland and advancing to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.

That was the day the Japanese showed the never-say-die fighting spirit of its people.

At the same time, Japan was facing the full wrath of Typhoon Hagibis.

People lost their lives (74 people have now died), tens of thousands displaced and damage to property had been so extensive that there was a real possibility the game could have been called off.

With floodwaters level still high and almost a million people were evacuated around Yokohama, where the match was played, a game of rugby was contested and what a match it turned out to be.

I’m not a rugby fan but after two hours of this incredible contest, I was left breathless.

Japan had never beaten Scotland before but halfway through this match there could only be one result.

The thousands watching the game in the stadium and the tens of millions more at home (with the exception of a few million Scots) willed the team home.

Japan had become the first Asian nation to qualify for a World Cup quarter-finals.

Amid sadness and tragedy, this was a triumph over adversity.

Coincidentally though, we were privileged to witness three more similar sporting achievements in the space of three days last week.

Eliud Kipchoge became the first human being to run a marathon in under two hours. This incredible feat of human endurance was once thought, just like the fabled four-minute-mile or a sub 9.8-second 100m, of being unachievable.

But the 34-year-old Kenyan proved that no human is limited with his incredible run in Vienna last Saturday.

Raised by a single mother in a small village in Kenya and having to run barefoot to school makes his story the stuff of fairy tales.

Kipchoge called it his “moonlanding moment”. But while his feat is rightly acknowledged by the athletics community as comparable to Sir Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile, it will not be ratified as a world record simply because there were elements of the run that were in clear violation of the International Association of Athletics Federations’ rules.

Just one day later, however, his compatriot Brigid Kosgei did break the women’s marathon world record in Chicago, smashing the 16-year-old record held by Paula Radcliffe in a historic weekend for marathon running.

This record, too, was one of the longest unbroken running records, but Kosgei obliterated it and has now declared that she can run faster! Her target now is two hours, 10 minutes. And that, believe it or not, would only be nine minutes short of the official men’s marathon world record.

The fact is Kosgei’s achievement of slashing more than a minute off Radcliffe’s record was a mark some scientists considered intrinsically harder to beat than the two-hour barrier for men.

If rugby or athletics isn’t your cup of tea, then perhaps witnessing Cristiano Ronaldo reach the 700-goal milestone against Ukraine on Monday would have got you off your seat.

Because it is getting harder and harder to describe just how good Ronaldo is as a footballer.

Only Gerd Muller, Ferenc Puskas, Pele, Romario and Josef Bican are ahead of him on the list of the players with the most career goals in soccer history.

In this day and age it is no mean feat to score 700 goals but even at the age of 34, Ronaldo believes that there is more to come. He already has a slew of other records, including being the top Champions League scorer of all time.

But is Ronaldo the greatest of all time? There are arguments for his great rival Lionel Messi, at two years younger than Ronaldo, the Argentinian could yet overtake his adversary in terms of goals scored. But many of us are just happy to live in a time when we are fortunate to witness both this incredible footballers showcase their skills on the world stage.

Back to Japan, the world will watch as their rugby team try to achieve another bit of sporting history this Sunday. Can the Brave Blossoms beat South Africa and book their place in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals?

The match will take place in Tokyo even as thousands of residents remain without power or water and evening temperatures hover around 15°C. But restoration and rebuilding work will cease temporarily as Japan unite as one at 6.15pm Malaysian time to cheer their team on.

Millions more around the world will be rooting for the brave Japanese. I know I will.