by Brett Larner
Relative newcomer Josai University had a strong showing at the 2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, a 20 km road race held Oct. 18 in western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park to select non-seeded teams for the 2009 Hakone Ekiden. Josai won the Yosenkai for the 2nd year in a row despite a mediocre run by its ace, 3rd year Yuta Takahashi. 12 other teams likewise qualified for January's Hakone, the Kanto regional men's university 2-day ekiden championships and the most popular race in Japan.
In a typical year, Hakone features 19 university teams and 1 select team made up of top runners from Kanto-area schools which failed to qualify. The top 10 finishing schools are seeded for the following year's Hakone with the remaining teams having to run the Yosenkai to requalify. In the Yosenkai, universities may field teams of up to 12 runners. All runners run an open 20 km race, with the aggregate time of a school's top 10 finishers determining the team finishing order. For the bottom three qualifying slots schools receive a time handicap bonus based on the schools' overall performance, including field events, at the 2008 National University Track and Field Championships, meaning that for these lowest-ranking positions schools with faster ekiden teams may be passed over in favor of team with slower ekiden teams but stronger overall track and field programs.
The 2008 Hakone Ekiden was, however, anything but typical. The select team finished in the top 10, a rarity, meaning only 9 teams would be seeded for 2009. 3 schools, including defending champion Juntendo, 2008 co-favorite Tokai, and the smaller Daito Bunka, failed to finish due to runner mishaps, the first time in the event's 84 year history so many schools dropped out.
The presence of major schools Juntendo and Tokai meant that weaker schools would have more difficulty than usual qualifying at the 2008 Yosenkai, but the Hakone Ekiden organization came to the rescue. In honor of the event's 85th anniversary, Hakone announced that 3 additional schools would be allowed to compete in 2009, meaning that 13 teams had a chance to qualify at the Yosenkai along with the select team.
Josai, which first ran Hakone in only 2004 and has progressively moved its way up through the ranks, had 2 runners in the top 4, although its 2nd, Takahashi, was not in top condition and faded from the leaders when the top pack broke away in the 2nd half of the race. Josai is well-poised to try again to finish in the seeded top 10 at the 2009 Hakone after near-misses in 2007 and 2008.
Runner-up Tokyo Nogyo repeated its surprise run at last year's Yosenkai, qualifying with ease. Its top finisher, 3rd year Kazuki Tomaru, was one of the big stories of this year's Yosenkai. Tomaru was the overall winner and the only man in the field to break the hour mark, no small accomplishment considering the twisting, undulating course and temperatures of 23 degrees at the start. He ran in the top pack for the first 15 km of the race, then launched a long attack at the 5 km to break leader Kodai Matsumoto of Meiji. Tokyo Nogyo was not able to parlay its strong performance at last year's Yosenkai into an equivalently strong run at the 2008 Hakone Ekiden, but a new year is a new year.
The biggest story of this year's Yosenkai was the 3rd place finish by Jobu University. Jobu's ekiden team began 5 years ago when a group of student runners at the school wrote letters to retired athletes asking them to become their coach. The students succeeded in persuading the university to hire Katsuhiko Hanada, a 2-time Olympian and Waseda graduate who set the stage record on Hakone's 4th leg in 1993. In 2008, 2nd year student Mao Fukuyama was the first Jobu runner to compete in Hakone, running the famous uphill 5th stage on the Kanto select team. He passed 5 other runners, finishing with the 3rd best time on the stage and inspiring his teammates to work harder. At this year's Yosenkai Jobu's top runner finished in 1:01:11, far behind the leaders. Fukuyama, now a 3rd year, was next in 1:01:14. Incredibly, Jobu's next 8 scoring finishers were all under 1:01:50, making it the 1st school in the race to land all 10 scorers. The result speaks very well for both Hanada's coaching and the Jobu team's motivation. Jobu's 1st-ever Hakone appearance, earned without the aid of either the time handicap from Nationals or the extra 3 slots at this year's Hakone, will be one of the most anticipated highlights of the 2009 Hakone Ekiden.
Takushoku and Meiji will both return to Hakone after short absences, the former having missed making the 2007 Hakone Ekiden by 1 second, the latter buoyed by the performance of 3rd year Kodai Matsumoto who led the Yosenkai for its first 15 km and was 2nd until the final km when he suffered a hamstring strain and almost dropped out, falling to 9th but still leading the Meiji team in.
The other success story of this year's Yosenkai was Aoyama Gakuin, which, after being the 1st team outside the qualification bracket last year, took 13th this year to qualify for its 1st Hakone Ekiden in 33 years. Granted, Aoyama qualified thanks to the extra 3 slots this year, but considering that it actually finished 12th on pure time, ahead of 2007 Hakone winners Juntendo who were only ranked higher in the final standings due to a larger handicap bonus, its run was outstanding. The school's last appearance was long before the births of any of the current members and in that running Aoyama's anchor fainted 200 m from the goal and failed to finish. Given these facts, this year's team will be motivated to restore the school's name.
At the other end of the spectrum, Hosei University failed to qualify for Hakone, beaten out by Aoyama Gakuin by just 6 seconds. Hosei, along with Waseda, Chuo and Nihon, is one of the few schools which have been in Hakone since the event's inception. It has run in 72 of the 84 previous editions, so its absence in 2009 is prominent to say the least. Hosei's strongest runner, 3rd year Masahiro Fukushima, took the result very hard as he had had a bad day and run far off his capabilities. To give credit where it is due, Hosei actually finished 13th on pure time but were eliminated by Juntendo on the strength of Juntendo's larger handicap bonus.
Of the 3 schools which failed to finish the 2008 Hakone Ekiden, Tokai and Daito Bunka had moderate results which reflected the fact that both schools ran the Izumo Ekiden on Monday. Tokai, which was 6th in Izumo but 7th in the Yosenkai, was clearly fatigued, its superstar runner Yuki Sato, who in peak shape would easily have won the race, dropping from the lead pack in only 5 km. Sato eventually stopped at least 3 times with leg cramps and finished far down in the field. By contrast, Daito Bunka's 10th place finish in the Yosenkai was a better reflection of its abilities than its 14th place finish in Izumo, revealing where the priorities of its coach Shinya Tadakuma lie. Daito Bunka 4th year Naoki Sumida, the runner who was responsible for the school dropping out of the 2008 Hakone Ekiden, hoped to redeem himself at the Yosenkai but had another bad day, stuggling home in 1:04:56 as the 12th man on the team, outside the scoring positions.
Which leaves Juntendo. The 2007 champion, Juntendo was in danger of finishing outside the seeded positions as the defending champ in 2008 when its 5th leg runner Hiroyuki Ono collapsed just a few hundred m from the end of his stage and eliminated the school. While Ono ran well through the spring and summer track season, the fortunes of the rest of the team have fallen so far so quickly that head coach Akira Nakamura should be seriously fearing for his job. Juntendo came in 14th at the Yosenkai on time, but thanks to a large time handicap from Nationals finished in 12th, nearly 2 1/2 minutes behind the minor Kokushikan team and just 20 seconds ahead of Aoyama Gakuin. Juntendo must be very thankful for the extra 3 slots this year, but its chances of making the seeded positions in Hakone look very slim. If Juntendo fails to be seeded it will have to run the Yosenkai for a 2nd consecutive year, only the 2nd time in the school's history this will have happened.
2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai Team Results
top 13 teams qualify for 2009 Hakone Ekiden
1. Josai Univ. - 10:13:20
2. Tokyo Nogyo Univ. - 10:13:46
3. Jobu Univ. - 10:15:47
4. Nittai Univ. - 10:17:04
5. Takushoku Univ. - 10:17:43
6. Kanagawa Univ. - 10:18:04
7. Tokai Univ. - 10:18:15
8. Senshu Univ. - 10:19:25
9. Meiji Univ. - 10:19:30
10. Daito Bunka Univ. - 10:21:01
.....
11. Kokushikan Univ. - 10:17:57* (10:21:32 run time - 11th fastest)
12. Juntendo Univ. - 10:20:13* (10:24:03 run time - 14th fastest)
13. Aoyama Gakuin Univ. - 10:20:33* (10:21:48 - 12th fastest)
.....
14. Hosei Univ. - 10:20:39* (10:23:49 run time - 13th fastest)
15. Kokugakuin Univ. - 10:25:51* (10:26:21 run time - 15th fastest)
*The aggregate times for the 11th-13th place teams plus those not qualifying for Hakone include a handicap bonus based on the schools' overall performances, including field events, at the 2008 National University Track and Field Championships.
Complete team results are available here.
Top Individual Results
1. Kazuki Tomaru (3rd yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 59:42
2. Keisuke Tanaka (2nd yr., Josai Univ.) - 1:00:04
3. Koji Gokaya (3rd yr., Senshu Univ.) - 1:00:11
4. Yuta Takahashi (3rd yr., Josai Univ.) - 1:00:16
5. Taiga Ito (4th yr., Takushoku Univ.) - 1:00:17
6. Kazuya Deguchi (2nd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 1:00:28
7. Norimasa Yoshida (4th yr., Tokai Univ.) - 1:00:32
8. Takahiro Mori (3rd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 1:00:34
9. Kodai Matsumoto (3rd yr., Meiji Univ.) - 1:00:35
10. Hiroyuki Ono (4th yr., Juntendo Univ.) - 1:00:37
.....
112. Yuki Sato (4th yr., Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:15
Complete individual results are available here.
2009 Hakone Ekiden Entry List - 23 Teams
Komazawa Univ.
Waseda Univ.
Chuo Gakuin Univ.
Asia Univ.
Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.
Chuo Univ.
Teikyo Univ.
Nihon Univ.
Toyo Univ.
Josai. Univ.
Tokyo Nogyo Univ.
Jobu Univ.
Nittai Univ.
Takushoku Univ.
Kanagawa Univ.
Tokai Univ.
Senshu Univ.
Meiji Univ.
Daito Bunka Univ.
Kokushikan Univ.
Juntendo Univ.
Aoyama Gakuin Univ.
Kanto Regional Univ. Select Team
(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Relative newcomer Josai University had a strong showing at the 2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, a 20 km road race held Oct. 18 in western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park to select non-seeded teams for the 2009 Hakone Ekiden. Josai won the Yosenkai for the 2nd year in a row despite a mediocre run by its ace, 3rd year Yuta Takahashi. 12 other teams likewise qualified for January's Hakone, the Kanto regional men's university 2-day ekiden championships and the most popular race in Japan.In a typical year, Hakone features 19 university teams and 1 select team made up of top runners from Kanto-area schools which failed to qualify. The top 10 finishing schools are seeded for the following year's Hakone with the remaining teams having to run the Yosenkai to requalify. In the Yosenkai, universities may field teams of up to 12 runners. All runners run an open 20 km race, with the aggregate time of a school's top 10 finishers determining the team finishing order. For the bottom three qualifying slots schools receive a time handicap bonus based on the schools' overall performance, including field events, at the 2008 National University Track and Field Championships, meaning that for these lowest-ranking positions schools with faster ekiden teams may be passed over in favor of team with slower ekiden teams but stronger overall track and field programs.
The 2008 Hakone Ekiden was, however, anything but typical. The select team finished in the top 10, a rarity, meaning only 9 teams would be seeded for 2009. 3 schools, including defending champion Juntendo, 2008 co-favorite Tokai, and the smaller Daito Bunka, failed to finish due to runner mishaps, the first time in the event's 84 year history so many schools dropped out.
The presence of major schools Juntendo and Tokai meant that weaker schools would have more difficulty than usual qualifying at the 2008 Yosenkai, but the Hakone Ekiden organization came to the rescue. In honor of the event's 85th anniversary, Hakone announced that 3 additional schools would be allowed to compete in 2009, meaning that 13 teams had a chance to qualify at the Yosenkai along with the select team.
Josai, which first ran Hakone in only 2004 and has progressively moved its way up through the ranks, had 2 runners in the top 4, although its 2nd, Takahashi, was not in top condition and faded from the leaders when the top pack broke away in the 2nd half of the race. Josai is well-poised to try again to finish in the seeded top 10 at the 2009 Hakone after near-misses in 2007 and 2008.
Runner-up Tokyo Nogyo repeated its surprise run at last year's Yosenkai, qualifying with ease. Its top finisher, 3rd year Kazuki Tomaru, was one of the big stories of this year's Yosenkai. Tomaru was the overall winner and the only man in the field to break the hour mark, no small accomplishment considering the twisting, undulating course and temperatures of 23 degrees at the start. He ran in the top pack for the first 15 km of the race, then launched a long attack at the 5 km to break leader Kodai Matsumoto of Meiji. Tokyo Nogyo was not able to parlay its strong performance at last year's Yosenkai into an equivalently strong run at the 2008 Hakone Ekiden, but a new year is a new year.
The biggest story of this year's Yosenkai was the 3rd place finish by Jobu University. Jobu's ekiden team began 5 years ago when a group of student runners at the school wrote letters to retired athletes asking them to become their coach. The students succeeded in persuading the university to hire Katsuhiko Hanada, a 2-time Olympian and Waseda graduate who set the stage record on Hakone's 4th leg in 1993. In 2008, 2nd year student Mao Fukuyama was the first Jobu runner to compete in Hakone, running the famous uphill 5th stage on the Kanto select team. He passed 5 other runners, finishing with the 3rd best time on the stage and inspiring his teammates to work harder. At this year's Yosenkai Jobu's top runner finished in 1:01:11, far behind the leaders. Fukuyama, now a 3rd year, was next in 1:01:14. Incredibly, Jobu's next 8 scoring finishers were all under 1:01:50, making it the 1st school in the race to land all 10 scorers. The result speaks very well for both Hanada's coaching and the Jobu team's motivation. Jobu's 1st-ever Hakone appearance, earned without the aid of either the time handicap from Nationals or the extra 3 slots at this year's Hakone, will be one of the most anticipated highlights of the 2009 Hakone Ekiden.
Takushoku and Meiji will both return to Hakone after short absences, the former having missed making the 2007 Hakone Ekiden by 1 second, the latter buoyed by the performance of 3rd year Kodai Matsumoto who led the Yosenkai for its first 15 km and was 2nd until the final km when he suffered a hamstring strain and almost dropped out, falling to 9th but still leading the Meiji team in.
The other success story of this year's Yosenkai was Aoyama Gakuin, which, after being the 1st team outside the qualification bracket last year, took 13th this year to qualify for its 1st Hakone Ekiden in 33 years. Granted, Aoyama qualified thanks to the extra 3 slots this year, but considering that it actually finished 12th on pure time, ahead of 2007 Hakone winners Juntendo who were only ranked higher in the final standings due to a larger handicap bonus, its run was outstanding. The school's last appearance was long before the births of any of the current members and in that running Aoyama's anchor fainted 200 m from the goal and failed to finish. Given these facts, this year's team will be motivated to restore the school's name.
At the other end of the spectrum, Hosei University failed to qualify for Hakone, beaten out by Aoyama Gakuin by just 6 seconds. Hosei, along with Waseda, Chuo and Nihon, is one of the few schools which have been in Hakone since the event's inception. It has run in 72 of the 84 previous editions, so its absence in 2009 is prominent to say the least. Hosei's strongest runner, 3rd year Masahiro Fukushima, took the result very hard as he had had a bad day and run far off his capabilities. To give credit where it is due, Hosei actually finished 13th on pure time but were eliminated by Juntendo on the strength of Juntendo's larger handicap bonus.
Of the 3 schools which failed to finish the 2008 Hakone Ekiden, Tokai and Daito Bunka had moderate results which reflected the fact that both schools ran the Izumo Ekiden on Monday. Tokai, which was 6th in Izumo but 7th in the Yosenkai, was clearly fatigued, its superstar runner Yuki Sato, who in peak shape would easily have won the race, dropping from the lead pack in only 5 km. Sato eventually stopped at least 3 times with leg cramps and finished far down in the field. By contrast, Daito Bunka's 10th place finish in the Yosenkai was a better reflection of its abilities than its 14th place finish in Izumo, revealing where the priorities of its coach Shinya Tadakuma lie. Daito Bunka 4th year Naoki Sumida, the runner who was responsible for the school dropping out of the 2008 Hakone Ekiden, hoped to redeem himself at the Yosenkai but had another bad day, stuggling home in 1:04:56 as the 12th man on the team, outside the scoring positions.
Which leaves Juntendo. The 2007 champion, Juntendo was in danger of finishing outside the seeded positions as the defending champ in 2008 when its 5th leg runner Hiroyuki Ono collapsed just a few hundred m from the end of his stage and eliminated the school. While Ono ran well through the spring and summer track season, the fortunes of the rest of the team have fallen so far so quickly that head coach Akira Nakamura should be seriously fearing for his job. Juntendo came in 14th at the Yosenkai on time, but thanks to a large time handicap from Nationals finished in 12th, nearly 2 1/2 minutes behind the minor Kokushikan team and just 20 seconds ahead of Aoyama Gakuin. Juntendo must be very thankful for the extra 3 slots this year, but its chances of making the seeded positions in Hakone look very slim. If Juntendo fails to be seeded it will have to run the Yosenkai for a 2nd consecutive year, only the 2nd time in the school's history this will have happened.
2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai Team Results
top 13 teams qualify for 2009 Hakone Ekiden
1. Josai Univ. - 10:13:20
2. Tokyo Nogyo Univ. - 10:13:46
3. Jobu Univ. - 10:15:47
4. Nittai Univ. - 10:17:04
5. Takushoku Univ. - 10:17:43
6. Kanagawa Univ. - 10:18:04
7. Tokai Univ. - 10:18:15
8. Senshu Univ. - 10:19:25
9. Meiji Univ. - 10:19:30
10. Daito Bunka Univ. - 10:21:01
.....
11. Kokushikan Univ. - 10:17:57* (10:21:32 run time - 11th fastest)
12. Juntendo Univ. - 10:20:13* (10:24:03 run time - 14th fastest)
13. Aoyama Gakuin Univ. - 10:20:33* (10:21:48 - 12th fastest)
.....
14. Hosei Univ. - 10:20:39* (10:23:49 run time - 13th fastest)
15. Kokugakuin Univ. - 10:25:51* (10:26:21 run time - 15th fastest)
*The aggregate times for the 11th-13th place teams plus those not qualifying for Hakone include a handicap bonus based on the schools' overall performances, including field events, at the 2008 National University Track and Field Championships.
Complete team results are available here.
Top Individual Results
1. Kazuki Tomaru (3rd yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 59:42
2. Keisuke Tanaka (2nd yr., Josai Univ.) - 1:00:04
3. Koji Gokaya (3rd yr., Senshu Univ.) - 1:00:11
4. Yuta Takahashi (3rd yr., Josai Univ.) - 1:00:16
5. Taiga Ito (4th yr., Takushoku Univ.) - 1:00:17
6. Kazuya Deguchi (2nd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 1:00:28
7. Norimasa Yoshida (4th yr., Tokai Univ.) - 1:00:32
8. Takahiro Mori (3rd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 1:00:34
9. Kodai Matsumoto (3rd yr., Meiji Univ.) - 1:00:35
10. Hiroyuki Ono (4th yr., Juntendo Univ.) - 1:00:37
.....
112. Yuki Sato (4th yr., Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:15
Complete individual results are available here.
2009 Hakone Ekiden Entry List - 23 Teams
Komazawa Univ.
Waseda Univ.
Chuo Gakuin Univ.
Asia Univ.
Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.
Chuo Univ.
Teikyo Univ.
Nihon Univ.
Toyo Univ.
Josai. Univ.
Tokyo Nogyo Univ.
Jobu Univ.
Nittai Univ.
Takushoku Univ.
Kanagawa Univ.
Tokai Univ.
Senshu Univ.
Meiji Univ.
Daito Bunka Univ.
Kokushikan Univ.
Juntendo Univ.
Aoyama Gakuin Univ.
Kanto Regional Univ. Select Team
(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
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