Skip to main content

Hakone Ekiden on Deck - Entry Lists

by Brett Larner

Twelve hours to go until the start of the 2010 Hakone Ekiden. The race begins at 8:00 a.m. Japan time on Jan. 2 with a one-hour preview at 7:00 a.m. Click here to watch Nihon TV's broadcast online via Keyhole TV. Click here for live English commentary on JRNLive. Click here for JRN's 2010 Hakone preview.

Preliminary entry lists are available here. Final entry lists for Day One will be announced during the preview show at 7:00 a.m. Noteworthy details of the preliminary lists:

  • Toyo: Hiroyuki Uno - 1st Stage, Ryuji Kashiwabara - 5th Stage
  • Waseda: Yo Yazawa - 1st Stage, Takahiro Ozaki - 2nd Stage, Yuki Yagi - 5th Stage, Sota Kato - 6th Stage, Hiroyuki Sasaki - reserve, Shota Hiraga - reserve
  • Yamanashi Gakuin: Cosmas Ondiba - 3rd Stage
  • Nihon: Daniel Gitau - 2nd Stage
  • Meiji: Takuya Ishikawa - 2nd Stage, Kodai Matsumoto - reserve
  • Komazawa: Sota Hoshi - 1st Stage, Tsuyoshi Ugachi - 2nd Stage, Takuya Fukatsu - 5th Stage, Wataru Ueno - 8th Stage, Yusuke Takabayashi - 9th Stage
  • Tokyo Nogyo: Kazuki Tomaru - 2nd Stage
  • Jobu: Yasuo Ishida - 2nd Stage, Mao Fukuyama - 5th Stage, Yusuke Hasegawa - reserve
  • Nittai: Kazuya Deguchi - 1st Stage, Takahiro Mori - 2nd Stage, Takuya Noguchi - reserve
  • Josai: Yuta Takahashi - 2nd Stage
  • Tokai: Akinobu Murasawa - 2nd Stage, Tsubasa Hayakawa - 3rd Stage
  • Kanto Select Team: Takuji Morimoto - 1st Stage, Masaki Ito - 2nd Stage
There's some movement toward putting strong guys on 5th to counteract Kashiwabara, as in Waseda's Yagi and Komazawa's Fukatsu, but it looks like pre-race reports of Nihon's Gitau and Tokai's Murasawa taking the 5th were not accurate.

The 2nd Stage will still be the focus for the big guns: Waseda's Ozaki, Komazawa's Ugachi, ToNo's Tomaru, Jobu's Ishida, Nittai's Mori, Josai's Takahashi, Kanto's Ito, and of course Murasawa.

Komazawa putting Hoshi on 1st - a sign that he's still hurting like at Nationals and that they expect Ugachi on 2nd to make up the difference?

Yamanashi Gakuin putting Kenyan Ondiba on 3rd is a curious move.

Waseda's first-years Sasaki and Hiraga on reserve status is a bluff. Watanabe does it with some of his best guys every year and will put them in on race morning, either tomorrow or on Day Two. Probably the same story for Jobu's Hasegawa, the fastest Japanese guy in the field, and Nittai's Noguchi. Regrettably Meiji ace Matsumoto has been dealing with compartment syndrome and is very unlikely to run, meaning Meiji is out as a contender.

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...