Skip to main content

Ritsumeikan University Takes Eighth National University Women's Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner

Defending national champion Ritsumeikan University added an eighth title to its legacy Oct. 27 in Sendai, winning the 31st National University Women's Ekiden Championships after leading start to finish.  First Stage runner Natsuki Omori got things off by winning the 6.4 km opening leg by a second over Ayumi Uehara of Matsuyama University despite a fall midway through the stage, and from there the Ritsumeikan women never looked back.  Ritsumeikan runners won five of the day's six stages, only Juntendo University's Nanaka Izawa spoiling their day with a win on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage.

With the Kansai region typically seen as the center of collegiate women's distance running, four of this year's top ten schools were from the Kanto region, better known for the strength of its men's programs.  Daito Bunka University was the top Kanto school, 2nd overall on the strength of quality runs from its identical twins Eri and Mari Tayama. Coached by Keiichi Murai, the husband of past marathon great Reiko Tosa, Matsuyama University continued its development into one of the country's leading distance schools as it took 3rd just five years after making Nationals for the first time under Murai's leadership.  In a signal of a shift in eras, perpetual Ritsumeikan rivals Meijo University and Bukkyo University missed out on the top five, taking 6th and 7th more than four minutes behind Ritsumeikan.  Last year's 3rd-placer Tsukuba University had a disastrous run, finishing 16th of 26 teams as star twins Haruka and Moe Kyuma were both non-starters.

31st Morinomiyako Ekiden - National University Women's Ekiden Championships
Sendai, Miyagi, 10/27/13
click here for complete results

Overall Results - six stages, 38.0 km, 26 teams
1. Ritsumeikan Univ. - 2:03:02
2. Daito Bunka Univ. - 2:04:47
3. Matsuyama Univ. - 2:05:40
4. Kanaya Taiiku Univ. - 2:07:09
5. Nittai Univ. - 2:07:19
6. Meijo Univ. - 2:07:31
7. Bukkyo Univ. - 2:07:40
8. Kansai Univ. - 2:08:13
9. Josai Univ. - 2:08:23
10. Juntendo Univ. - 2:08:25

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (6.4 km) - Natsuki Omori (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 20:22
Second Stage (5.6 km) - Nanako Kanno (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 17:39
Third Stage (6.8 km) - Akane Yabushita (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 21:59
Fourth Stage (4.8 km) - Mai Hirota (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 15:48
Fifth Stage (9.2 km) - Nanaka Izawa (Juntendo Univ.) - 29:53
Sixth Stage (5.2 km) - Nanami Aoki (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 17:12

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive