Japan Post was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's Ayuko Suzuki and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
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In both of the amateur-oriented clubs I coach in Tokyo, one a paid-membership organization, the other sponsored by one of the major makers, the large majority of members are people who had never run or had not run seriously/run a marathon prior to the onset of Tokyo. That's also the case for most of the other paid and maker-sponsored clubs which continue to spring up across Japan. Much of the growth sector of the industry here is geared toward the beginner. It's possible that many of them had always wanted to run, if that's what you are suggesting, but Tokyo was the catalyst that brought them all into the sport in my experience here.
--Wesleyan grad