Skip to main content

Komazawa Wins Third-Straight National University Men's Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner



Komazawa University rode the momentum of its course record win at last month's Izumo Ekiden to score its third-straight and eleventh total national title Nov. 3 at the 45th National University Men's Ekiden Championships.  2013 national university half marathon champion Shogo Nakamura blew things open on the 14.6 km First Stage by opening a gap of over 30 seconds that never closed.  Five of Komazawa's eight runners scored stage bests to seal the deal, anchor and captain Shinobu Kubota falling just short of breaking last year's overall course record of 5:12:43 for the full 106.8 km distance as he crossed the line in 5:13:09.

By far the star of the show was Komazawa junior Kenta Murayama.  Let's say that again. Kenta Murayama.  Remember that name.  Kenta Murayama.  After crushing Japanese domestic 10000 m record holder Tsuyoshi Ugachi's stage record at Izumo last month, Murayama did the inconceivable and ran 39:24 to take 8 seconds off the 14.0 km Fourth Stage record set five years ago by Kenyan Mekubo Mogusu of Yamanashi Gakuin University.  It's worth a paragraph or so to pause and consider how good a mark that is.  In the year prior to setting the old record of 39:32 Mogusu broke 60 minutes for the half marathon three times.  Murayama's time for the 14.0 km stage prorated over the 10 mile distance equates to 45:17, well under the 45:40 national record set 29 years ago by Hisatoshi Shintaku.  That's almost a minute better than the U.S. national record of 46:13. 14 km to 21 km is more of a stretch, but based on Murayama's pacing Atsushi Sato's 1:00:25 half marathon national record also looks in range.  1:01:19 at February's Marugame Half Marathon at age 19 to break into the all-time Japanese top ten followed up by a 1:02:02 for 10th at March's New York City Half Marathon, Murayama may well have run the best-ever performance by a Japanese collegiate today.

2013 Hakone Ekiden and Izumo Ekiden runner-up Toyo University was 2nd yet again, running well but finishing nearly three minutes slower than last year.  Meiji University, with eleven sub-14 men on its roster, overcame the difficulties it experienced in Izumo to take a solid 3rd over 2010 national champion Waseda University.  Yamanashi Gakuin University took 5th after a brilliant run from anchor Enock Omwamba, with 2012 Izumo Ekiden course record setter Aoyama Gakuin University holding off Daito Bunka University by 11 seconds to round out the top six spots seeded for 2014.  2013 Hakone Ekiden champion Nittai University was only 8th as anchor Keigo Yano ran into serious dehydration problems.

University ekiden season, the crown jewels of Japan's distance running calendar, continues in two weeks with the Ageo City Half Marathon where Hakone Ekiden-bound universities' coaches will send forth their complete squads to have them duke it out for contention for places on the final roster for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone main event.  Look for exclusive coverage of Ageo from JRN.

45th National University Men's Ekiden Championships
Nagoya-Ise, 11/3/13
26 teams, 8 stages, 106.8 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results - top six seeded for 2014
1. Komazawa University - 5:13:09
2. Toyo University - 5:16:19
3. Meiji University - 5:18:32
4. Waseda University - 5:19:22
5. Yamanashi Gakuin University - 5:20:07
6. Aoyama Gakuin University - 5:22:09
-----
7. Daito Bunka University - 5:22:20
8. Nittai University - 5:23:26
9. Nihon University - 5:23:40
10. Juntendo University - 5:25:23

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (14.6 km)
Shogo Nakamura (Komazawa Univ.) - 42:38

Second Stage (13.2 km)
Hiroto Inoue (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 38:08
Hideto Yamanaka (Nittai Univ.) - 38:08
Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.) - 38:08

Third Stage (9.5 km)
Ikuto Yufu (Komazawa Univ.) - 27:07

Fourth Stage (14.0 km)
Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.) - 39:24 - CR

Fifth Stage (11.6 km)
Keisuke Nakatani (Komazawa Univ.) - 34:18

Sixth Stage (12.3 km)
Shota Baba (Komazawa Univ.) - 36:08

Seventh Stage (11.9 km)
Shin Kimura (Meiji Univ.) - 35:19

Eighth Stage (19.7 km)
Daniel Kitonyi (Kenya/Nihon Univ.) - 57:14

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

JesĂºs B G said…
amigos y compañeros de este bonito deporte aqui os dejo la direcciĂ³n de mi blog para que podais disfrutar de algunas de nuestras carreras por Spain, somos de CĂ³rdoba. Un saludo

http://running-cordoba.blogspot.com.es/

Tenemos traductor en el blog.
TokyoRacer said…
Quite a surprise that Osaka did not win his stage.

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr