Skip to main content

Fukuoka Takes Second-Straight Grand Tour Kyushu to Bring Its 62-Year History to a Close

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/ekiden/2013/all/kiji/20131103/20131103_0004.shtml

translated and edited by Brett Larner
results coming shortly

The eighth, final and sweetest of the eight days making up the 62nd running of the Grand Tour Kyushu ekiden took place Nov. 3, the day's six stages spanning 83.8 km from the Yuhata Nishi Ward Offices in Kita-Kyushu to the Nishi Nippon Newspaper building in Fukuoka.  The hometown Fukuoka team won the day, its third individual day win of the tour, to make up a 3:42 deficit at the end of the seventh day and overtake Miyazaki for its second-straight overall win by a margin of just 2 1/2 minutes over the full 739.9 km distance, the 26th overall title in its history.  It was a perfect ending to bring the Grand Tour Kyushu's long and celebrated history to a close.

Fukuoka trailed Miyazaki through the Fourth Stage until Fifth Stage man Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) moved into first.  Fukuoka's anchor, Moscow World Championships marathoner Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), sealed the deal with a stage win to give Fukuoka the day by a margin of 6:16 over Miyazaki.

Fukuoka's Ryuji Watanabe (Team Toyota Kyushu) won the Tour's MVP award for winning all three of his stages including one stage record.  Kumamoto Prefecture's Naoki Inoue (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) won the Best Newcomer award.  Kagoshima Prefecture was the most improved team, taking 10:39 off its overall time from last year.  Both Fukuoka and Miyazaki won three individual days, with Nagasaki Prefecture picking up the other two.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

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...

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...

16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda , announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month. Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so ...