Skip to main content

2011 International Chiba Ekiden Field Released (updated)

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/111108/oth11110819020007-n1.htm
http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/2011/11/08/0004605410.shtml
http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2011110800657

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Nov. 8 the organizers of the 2011 International Chiba Ekiden held a press conference to announced the teams for the Nov. 23 event.  Teams from ten countries including Japan, Kenya and the United States will face off against the defending champion Japanese University Select Team and a team made up of top runners from hosts Chiba Prefecture over the six-stage, 42.195 km race.  Each team includes three men and three women who will alternate stages in handing off the tasuki.

Finishing 3rd last year, the Japanese team features men Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota), Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B), Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) and Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) and women Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki), Hitomi Niiya (Sakura AC), Kasumi Nishihara (Team Yamada Denki) and Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku).  Aiming to defend last year's title, the University team includes Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.), Risa Takenaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.).

Kobayashi, the 1500 m national record holder, told reporters, "I couldn't run as well as I wanted during track season, so I want to do something big here and ride that momentum into next year.  I don't want to lose again this time."   Yoroizaka agreed, saying, "I'll be running against a lot of university guys I know well, so we can't lose."  His rival University Select Team rival Osako firmly countered, "We're going for the win."

Translator's note: The 2011 International Chiba Ekiden will be broadcast live beginning at 1:00 p.m. Japan time on Nov. 23.  Overseas viewers should be able to watch online for free via Keyhole TV, available here.

2011 International Chiba Ekiden Field
12 teams, six stages, 42.195 km
click here for complete entry lists

Teams and Member Highlights
Australia - Georgie Clarke, Lisa Corrigan
Canada - Taylor Milne, Dayna Pidhoresky
Chiba Pref. - Yusuke Sato
Czech Republic - Jan Kreisinger
Japan - Kensuke Takezawa, Yuichiro Ueno, Tetsuya Yoroizaka, Yuriko Kobayashi, Hitomi Niiya, Kasumi Nishihara
Japanese Univ. Select Team - Takehiro Deki, Suguru Osako, Risa Takenaka, Hikari Yoshimoto
Kenya - Thomas Longosiwa, Patrick Mwikya, Janeth Kisa
New Zealand - Matthew Smith, Lisa Robertson
Poland - Michal Kazamarek, Lidia Chojecka
Romania - Marius Ionescu
Russia - Anatoly and Evgeny Rybakov, Elena Korobkina, Natalia Popkova, Elizaveta Grechishnikova, Elena Zahorozhnaya
U.S.A. - Robert Chesert, Christo Landry, Bobby Mack, Josh Moen, Emily Brown, Janet Cherobon-Bawcom

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

70th Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...