Skip to main content

Women's Ekiden Weekend Roundup

by Brett Larner

Two high-level mid-season women's ekidens held their 29th runnings on Nov. 10.  A dry run for January's National Women's Ekiden and featuring the same format of teams made up of junior high school, high school, university and pro runners from each prefecture, the nine-stage, 42.195 km East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima saw 2010 winner Chiba Prefecture advance in the second half of the race after a strong Fifth Stage run from ace Yurie Doi and a brilliant performance from the Seventh Stage's Asahi Tate to return to the top.  Anchor Mai Shinozuka had a scare from 2013 London Marathon 3rd-placer Yukiko Akaba (Tochigi Pref.), but with a starting margin of almost 45 seconds at her disposal fro the 10 km Ninth Stage she was safe enough to run a steady, conservative leg to bring Chiba home in 2:19:23, 27 seconds ahead of Akaba.  Up front through much of the race, Nagano Prefecture was the only other team to break 2:20:00 in rainy, windy conditions, 3rd in 2:19:59.  Two-time defending champion Kanagawa Prefecture was only 8th in 2:21:00.

Further west, the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden offered a rare chance to see top university, pro and club teams go head to head over a six-stage, 30.0 km course.  Despite its best member, Yuko Shimizu, running for Nagano at the East Japan Women's Ekiden, Team Sekisui Kagaku had a landslide victory, winning four stages including the first three to lead start to finish to stop the clock in 1:37:46.  Winners of September's Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden before bombing out at last month's National University Women's Ekiden, Osaka Gakuin University ran 2nd through most of the race, Fourth Stage runner Natsuki Hara running 13:30 for 4.0 km to take the stage best title.  On the anchor stage Chieko Kido of defending Fukui champion Canon AC Kyushu ran a stage best 25:58 for 8.0 km to overtake Osaka Gakuin's Minori Goto, picking up the runner-up position in 1:39:08 with the collegiates consigned to 3rd in 1:39:56.

29th East Japan Women's Ekiden
Fukushima, 11/10/13
9 stages, 42.195 km, 18 teams
click here for complete results

Top Team Results
1. Chiba Pref. - 2:19:23
2. Tochigi Pref. - 2:19:50
3. Nagano Pref. - 2:19:59
4. Shizuoka Pref. - 2:20:11
5. Tokyo - 2:20:22
6. Gunma Pref. - 2:20:29
7. Saitama Pref. - 2:20:38
8. Kanagawa Pref. - 2:21:00
9. Niigata Pref. - 2:22:09
10. Fukushima Pref. - 2:22:22

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (6.0 km) - Rina Yamazaki (Saitama Pref.) - 19:43
Second Stage (4.0 km) - Risa Kikuchi (Ibaraki Pref.) - 12:52
Third Stage (3.0 km) - Akiko Kawashima (Chiba Pref.) - 10:13
Fourth Stage (3.0 km) - Wakana Kabasawa (Gunma Pref.) - 9:41
Fifth Stage (5.0875 m) - Yurie Doi (Chiba Pref.) - 16:48
Sixth Stage (4.1075 m) - Shiori Yano (Tokyo) - 13:18
Seventh Stage (4.0 km) - Asahi Tate (Chiba Pref.) - 12:52
Eighth Stage (3.0 km) - Ema Hayashi (Gunma Pref.) - 9:08 - CR
Ninth Stage (10.0 km) - Mao Kiyota (Shizuoka Pref.) - 32:09

29th Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden
Fukui, 11/10/13
6 stages, 30.0 km, 46 teams
click here for complete results

Top Team Results
1. Team Sekisui Kagaku - 1:37:46
2. Canon AC Kyushu - 1:39:08
3. Osaka Gakuin Univ. A - 1:39:56
4. Meijo Univ. - 1:41:35
5. Bukkyo Univ. B - 1:41:56
6. Team Shiseido - 1:42:03
7. Ritsumeikan Univ. - 1:42:17
8. Bukkyo Univ. A - 1:42:21
9. Fukuoka Univ. A - 1:42:30
10. Team Yutaka Giken - 1:43:03

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (6.0 km) - Misaki Onishi (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 19:08
Second Stage (3.0 km) - Tomoyo Yamamoto (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 9:40
Third Stage (4.0 km) - Riko Matsuzaki (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 12:54
Fourth Stage (4.0 km) - Natsuki Hara (Osaka Gakuin Univ. A) - 13:30
Fifth Stage (5.0 km)  - Sayuri Baba (Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 16:29
Sixth Stage (8.0 km) - Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu) - 25:58

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
2 comments
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more