Skip to main content

Ndirangu, Tsumurai, Komazawa University Set Course Records in Weekend Ekiden Action

by Brett Larner

Along with marathoner Yuki Kawauchi's anchor stage win at the Okumusashi Ekiden, three other ekidens around the country on Sunday saw significant action.

At the biggest of them, the 75th Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden, Team Mazda had a surprise upset over local stronghold Team Chugoku Denryoku thanks to a spectacular anchor run from ace Akihiko Tsumurai.  Starting the 11.1 km Seventh Stage 43 seconds behind Chugoku Denryoku anchor Takumi Kiyotani, Tsumurai ran him down and won by three seconds, with Mazda finishing in 4:11:49 for the seven-stage, 84.4 km course to Chugoku Denryoku's 4:11:52.  Tsumurai clocked a new stage record of 31:21, a flat conversion to 28:07 for a road 10 km, just two seconds off the national record held by Chugoku Denryoku's Atsushi Sato.  2011 national champion Sera H.S. was a surprise 3rd in 4:14:13, one second ahead of the pro Team Sagawa Express thanks to a sizeable lead from opening Kenyan John Gasaya and a new stage record of 45:24 for the 15.9 km Sixth Stage by star Charles Ndirangu.  Ndirangu's record translates to 45:57 for 10 miles, just inside the all-time top 100 for that distance.

Near Tokyo, 2012 Hakone Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University set a new record of 2:05:13 at the 58th running of the six-stage 42.195 km Atsugi Ekiden.  First Stage runner Shogo Nakamura led off with a strong 29:57 for 10.3 km to give Komazawa a 44-second lead that was never threatened.  Komazawa's final margin of victory over runner-up Josai University was nearly two minutes as Josai came through the finish in 2:07:07.  Shoin University was a surprise 3rd in 2:08:13 after a Third Stage win by Aritaka Kajiwara.

Komazawa runners were also busy elsewhere.  At the first running of the Harenokuni Okayama Ekiden, Komazawa senior Taichi Takase ran 29:40 to win the 10.0 km anchor stage for his hometown of Niimi.  Kurashiki H.S. star Shota Baba was an impressive 2nd in 29:44.

As ekiden season winds down, watch for one more competitive men's ekiden, the Feb. 5 Meigi Ekiden, and the Feb. 12 Chugoku Women's Ekiden.

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more