Skip to main content

Double Olympian-Powered Japan Post Wins First National Corporate Women's Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner


In just its third year of existence the Japan Post Group team swept to the top of Japan's corporate women's league, winning the 36th running of the National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships Sunday in Sendai, Miyagi.  Featuring Rio track Olympians Ayuko Suzuki and Hanami Sekine, Japan Post was in it from the start.  Lead runner Kyoka Nakagawa got the team off in 4th as she covered the 7.0 km First Stage in 22:01, 11 seconds off leader Mao Ichiyama's 21:50 course record and 9 seconds under the old course record.  Still on the mend from the injury that hit her just before Rio, Suzuki was 5th on time on the 3.9 km Second Stage but still improved Japan Post's position to 3rd.  Sekine and fourth runner Rina Iwataka held steady in 3rd before fifth runner Rina Nabeshima got to work.

Covering 10.0 km on the Fifth Stage, Nabeshima caught leaders Yukiko Okuno (Team Shiseido) and Maki Ashi (Team Kyudenko) just as Yumi Kozasu (Team Wacoal) and Rio Olympics marathoner Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) entered orbit 2 km into the stage, forming a line five-wide across the road.  Not having any of that, Tanaka surged past and was pursued by Nabeshima.  Together they dropped the other three, Nabeshima continuing to look calm and relaxed but Tanaka starting to strain and grit her teeth.  When the time came Nabeshima effortlessly dispatched Her Olympian rival to open a 17-second lead before the handoff to the 6.795 km anchor stage.

Daiichi Seimei anchor Fumika Sasaki closed five seconds on Japan Post's Nozomi Terauchi but could get no closer before Terauchi launched into a 3:03 last kilometer to seal the win in 2:15:08.  Last year the Denso corporate team set a course record of 2:14:22.  With Suzuki still far less than 100% and running a much shorter stage than would be normal for her position on the team it's very likely Japan Post could have taken that record had she been fully operational.  The team's performance was a testament to head coach Masahiko Takahashi's ability, a new team in just its second national championships appearance winning decisively and casting the long shadow of a potential dynasty over the years to come.

Daiichi Seimei was 2nd in 2:15:21, more than a 30-second improvement over its performance last year.  Just 11th on the first stage, Yamada Denki spent the race moving forward and ended up 3rd in 2:16:08 thanks in large part to its fifth runner Sakiho Tsutsui, second on time behind Nabeshima, and anchor Kasumi Nishihara's stage-winning run.  The top eight are seeded for the following year's Nationals, and an intense battle for 8th upped the anchor stage drama.  Five teams were in the running for the last two spots, and in the end it came down to the last 100 m as Universal Entertainment's Moeno Nakamura outkicked Hokuren anchor Reno Okura in the home straight for 8th in 2:17:16.  Hokuren was 9th in 2:17:18, its third year in a row getting bumped back to the Princess Ekiden qualifier on the anchor stage.  Having lost star runner Yuka Takashima to the Shiseido team, course record holder and three-time defending champion Denso finished only 11th in 2:18:00.

More drama came earlier in the race for teams further back in the field.  Yutaka Giken's leading runner China Takano was in obvious trouble almost immediately, falling off the pack in the first kilometer and limping visibly.  Her pace slowing to almost a walk it looked doubtful that she could finish the 7.0 km First Stage, but incredibly she saw it out, staggering in to the exchange zone more than nine minutes behind stage winner Ichiyama and over five and a half minutes behind her nearest competition and immediately collapsing.  Pure guts running.


Yutaka Giken finished 21st, but they finished the race.  Not so lucky for last year's runner-up Toyota Jidoshokki.  In 3rd at the end of the First Stage, incoming Toyota Jidoshokki runner Yui Fukuda looked in vain for her outgoing runner Miho Shimada in the exchange zone, jogging forward as her momentum carried her.  Shimada leapt in from the side and grabbed the tasuki, but on review judges ruled that the exchange had happened outside the zone, resulting in Shimada and the entire Toyota Jidoshokki team's disqualifications.  Outgoing runners not being ready in time does happen at the amateur and junior levels, but it's rare to see in a pro race let alone a national championships.  The upset showed just how unpredictable the ekiden format can be, success or failure riding on every single member of the team.

Queen's Ekiden
36th National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships
Sendai, Miyagi, 11/27/16
22 teams, 6 stages, 42.195 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results - top eight seeded for 2017
1. Japan Post Group - 2:15:08
2. Daiichi Seimei Group - 2:15:21
3. Yamada Denki - 2:16:08
4. Kyudenko - 2:16:38
5. Wacoal - 2:16:44
6. Tenmaya - 2:16:50
7. Shiseido - 2:16:52
8. Universal Entertainment - 2:17:16
-----
9. Hokuren - 2:17:18
10. Sekisui Kagaku - 2:17:36
-----
DQ - Toyota Jidoshokki

Top Stage Performances
First Stage (7.0 km)
1. Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) - 21:50 - CR
2. Risa Takenaka (Shiseido) - 21:51
3. Yui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 21:58

Second Stage (3.9 km)
1. Tomoka Kimura (Universal Entertainment) - 12:04
2. Yuki Hori (Panasonic) - 12:10
2. Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 12:10
----
DQ - Miho Shimada (Toyota Jidoshokki)

Third Stage (10.9 km)
1. Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) - 34:33
2. Hanami Sekine (Japan Post) - 34:50
3. Misaki Kato (Kyudenko) - 34:52

Fourth Stage (3.6 km)
1. Shure Bulo (Toto) - 11:05
2. Susan Wairimu (Denso) - 11:21
3. Ann Karindi (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 11:24

Fifth Stage (10.0 km)
1. Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) - 32:39
2. Sakiho Tsutsui (Yamada Denki) - 32:42
3. Tomomi Tanaka (Daiichi Seimei) - 32:47

Sixth Stage (6.795 km)
1. Kasumi Nishihara (Yamada Denki) - 21:25
2. Fumika Sasaki (Daiichi Seimei) - 21:28
2. Moeno Nakamura (Universal Entertainment) - 21:28

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
Post a Comment
Read more

2023 Champion Kamimura Gakuen Girls Ready for Sunday's National High School Ekiden

Ahead of the Dec. 22 National High School Ekiden in Kyoto, the 2023 national champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. girls held an open practice session for the media. 2023 was Kamimura Gakuen's only 2nd national title ever. Can it make it two in a row? The Kamimura Gakuen girls won the Nov. 2 Kagoshima Prefecture High School Ekiden, its 9th-straight win and 31st victory overall in the prefectural qualifying race for Nationals. 3rd on her stage at Nationals last year as part of the winning team, Hina Ogura summed up this year's lineup. "There's no really dominant star runner this year, but each person is aware of their position on the team and working together to share in everyone playing leading roles." Sakine Noguchi ran the Second Stage at Nationals last year. "I think we've improved our stamina," she said, "so I hope that we can get the best possible results and all finish with a smile." Handling the First Stage last year, Rin Setoguchi said,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ekiden Great Naoki Okamoto to Retire in January at Age 40

  The Chugoku Denryoku  men's corporate team has announced that team member Naoki Okamoto , 40, will retire in January. Born in May, 1984, Okamoto went to Tohaku J.H.S.  and Yura Ikuei H.S.  before enrolling at Meiji University . His 2nd year at Meiji he helped it make it through the Hakone Ekiden qualifying race for the first time in 14 years and ran Hakone at the end of that season in 2005. He went on to run it his 3rd and 4th years too, placing 6th on the First Stage and 9th on the highly competitive Second Stage. After graduating in 2007 he joined Chugoku Denryoku. He was a regular on its team at the New Year Ekiden, winning the Fifth Stage in 2010. But where he really made his name was the National Men's Ekiden, held every January in Hiroshima where Chugoku Denryoku is based. Running it 19 times, he passed a total of 134 competitors in his career there and came to be recognized as one of the event's icons. He also won its Seventh Stage in 2009. In the marathon, ...
Post a Comment
Read more