Korean marathon man passes away

Sohn Kee-Chung, a Korean marathoner who won the gold medal for Japan in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, died early today of illness, doctors said. He was 90.

Sohn was admitted to Samsung hospital here on Wednesday with chronic kidney problems and symptoms of pneumonia. He had since remained unconscious on a life support system.

Sohn, a native of what is now North Korea, gained fame for winning the marathon in the Berlin Olympics but many Koreans still remember it with bitterness, because he ran for colonial ruler Japan. Japan ruled the Korean peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945.

Sohn ran under the adopted Japanese name, Kitei Son. During his stay in berlin, he tried to tell the world that he was a Korean by signing registers and documents with his real name and even drawing a tiny map of Korea along his signatures.