Skip to main content

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems and Nissin Shokuhin Group Win New Year Ekiden Regional Qualifiers

by Brett Larner


Corporate men's ekiden season got started Thursday with two regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden coporate men's national championships.  In the Kyushu Region, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems went back and forth with favorite Asahi Kasei throughout the race to score its first-ever regional win.  Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) got things started right with a 1:22 lead over Ryo Kiname (MHPS) on the 12.9 km First Stage.  Mitsubishi's new Kenyan Enock Omwamba caught Asahi Kasei's Takaya Arake on the Second Stage, both teams handing off to their third runners at the same time.  Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) opened a 42-second lead over Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei), but on the next stage Murayama's twin brother Kota Murayama, the 10000 m national record holder, cut Mitsubishi's lead down to 11 seconds.  Takashi Ichida turned it into a 59-second Asahi Kasei lead on the Fifth Stage, but Mitsubishi's sixth man Hayato Mera came back to within 1 second at the handoff to the anchor stage.  Over the 14.7 km Seventh Stage Mitsubishi's Toshiki Sadakata blew past Asahi Kasei's Yuki Arimura to give Mitsubishi a 27-second margin of victory.  With only seven real corporate teams in the region, the top seven teams in the field made the cut for the New Year Ekiden.


In the Tokyo-area East Japan Region, favorite Nissin Shokuhin Group led almost start to finish, leading man Masaki Toda opening a four-second margin on the 11.6 km First Stage.  Nissin's second man Akinobu Murasawa fell to 6th on the 15.3 km Second Stage but was only 5 seconds out of 1st.  Nissin's next man Leonard Barsoton had no trouble turning that into a 45 second lead, and from there to the finish Nissin Shokuin remained unchallenged.  Nissin's final margin of victory was 45 seconds over surprise runner-up Kanebo, now coached by marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka.  The Toshihiko Seko-led DeNA team took 3rd, meaning two relatively minor teams outrunning recent New Year Ekiden champions like Konica Minolta, Fujitsu and the strong Honda team.


Fourteen teams qualified for the New Year Ekiden, and the day's biggest drama came in the race for the final qualifying position.  Starting the 13.5 km anchor stage four seconds ahead of ND Software, the Sunbelx supermarket team held on to 14th all the way until the last lap of the track.  In his last kick ND Software anchor Akihito Kobari kicked past Sunbelx's Ryosuke Arakawa to snatch away 14th and the last ticket to the national championships.  For many of the smaller teams making it to the New Year Ekiden can be life or death, their sponsor funding depending on their success.  For ND Software it was a triumph.  For Sunbelx, potentially serious.

53rd Kyushu Corporate Men's Ekiden
Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 11/3/16
14 teams, 7 stages, 82.6 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results - top seven teams qualify for New Year Ekiden
1. Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems - 4:02:57
2. Asahi Kasei - 4:03:24
3. Toyota Kyushu - 4:05:16
4. Yasukawa Denki - 4:05:39
5. Kyudenko - 4:07:57
6. Kurosaki Harima - 4:10:32
7. Nishitetsu - 4:11:53
-----
8. Oita Select Team A - 4:21:35
9. Asahi Kasei Nobeoka - 4:23:07
10. Kyocera Kagoshima - 4:24:17

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (12.9 km) - Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) - 36:55
Second Stage (7.4 km) - Mamiyo Nigussie (Yasukawa Denki) - 20:49
Third Stage (13.0 km) - Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) - 37:04
Fourth Stage (8.2 km) - Kota Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 24:08
Fifth Stage (13.4 km) - Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 39:43
Sixth Stage (13.0 km) - Hayato Mera (MHPS) - 37:40
Seventh Stage (14.7 km) - Toshiki Sadakata (MHPS) - 43:34

57th East Japan Corporate Men's Ekiden
Kumagaya, Saitama, 11/3/16
26 teams, 7 stages, 77.5 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results - top fourteen teams qualify for New Year Ekiden
1. Nissin Shokuhin Group - 3:47:45
2. Kanebo - 3:48:34
3. DeNA - 3:49:07
4. Yakult - 3:49:24
5. Honda - 3:49:32
6. Hitachi Butsuryu - 3:49:38
7. Konica Minolta - 3:49:42
8. Fujitsu - 3:50:07
9. Yachiyo Kogyo - 3:52:14
10. Subaru - 3:52:58
11. Press Kogyo - 3:53:13
12. JR Higashi Nihon - 3:53:52
13. Komori Corp. - 3:54:49
14. ND Software - 3:55:54
-----
15. Sunbelx - 3:55:56
16. Police Headquarters - 3:56:11
17. Comody Iida - 4:02:35

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (11.6 km) - Masaki Toda (Nissin Shokuhin Group) - 33:27
Second Stage (15.3 km) - Shun Inoura (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 45:03
Third Stage (9.2 km) - Leonard Barsoton (Nissin Shokuhin) - 25:47
Fourth Stage (9.5 km) - Keigo Yano (Nissin Shokuhin) - 27:58 - CR
Fifth Stage (7.8 km) - Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) / Abiyot Abinet (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 23:14 - CR
Sixth Stage (10.6 km) - Shuhei Shirota (Kanebo) - 30:20
Seventh Stage (13.5 km) - Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta) - 40:05

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

On the Loss of the ARRS Database

At some point in the last few months I discovered that both versions of the ARRS database, the static one and the searchable version , are gone. Last week David Monti posted a link to the ARRS history of an event he covered in Race Results Weekly, I guess copying and pasting a link from last year without looking at it, and that reminded me to write something about the loss of the database. The Association of Road Racing Statisticians was basically a one-man show operated from the remote Northern California shores by Ken Young . When the site existed its intro read: The Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyses and publishes results and statistics regarding elite distance running at distances 3000m and longer...The data of ARRS is stored in the ARRS database, which has more than 1.3 million performances from more than 240,000 races by more than 95,000 elite and sub-elite distance runners worldwide...This website ...
1 comment
Read more

Multiple National Records This Weekend

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan's Team Lineup in Copenhagen

Re-upping an earlier post on Japan's team lineup for this weekend's  Copenhagen World Road Running Championships . The JAAF chose not to name any women to the team in the mile. Women 5 km Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:06.98 Rina Kusu (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:10.91 Half Marathon Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon) - 1:09:14 Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:20 Rina Shimizu (Noritz) - 1:09:22 Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) - 1:09:23 Men Mile Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.) - 3:37.53 (1500 m) Tomoki Nakano (Toenec) - 3:37.92 (1500 m) 5 km Yota Mashiko (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.35 Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.64 Half Marathon Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:00:22 Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:26 Neo Namiki (Subaru) - 1:00:29 Daisuke Sato (Chuo Univ.) - 1:00:40 © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved
2 comments
Read more