Skip to main content

From Madarao to the World - Tokai University's Hayato Seki

Long-awaited by university ekiden fans, the 2017 ekiden season is underway. The Izumo Ekiden was held Monday, with Tokai University living up to expectations to score the win. The athlete who broke the finish line tape as Tokai's anchor was second-year Hayato Seki. This year Seki has run PBs of 13:35.81 for 5000 m and 28:23.37 for 10000 m, marking his growth into one of the unquestionable stars of the university ekiden scene.

A week earlier, the Madarao Forest Trails race was held on Oct. 1. Flashback to the 2012 edition of the race five years ago. The winner in the 16 km Beginner Class men's race was none other than Seki, then in his third year of junior high school. The picture below is of his win at the 2012 Madarao Forest Trails race. Even though he was only a junior high school student Seki ran brilliantly, opening up a huge lead of well over four minutes over the 2nd-placer.


After that Seki entereed Nagano's ekiden powerhouse Saku Chosei H.S. and has now grown into the star runner at Tokai University at the very summit of the university ekiden world. Madarao Forest Trails producer Hiroki Ishikawa reminded me about Seki's win when I saw him at last week's race.

From Madarao to the world. All eyes will be on Seki this season and in those to come.

source article: https://gamp.ameblo.jp/timingman/entry-12318531214.html
translated by Brett Larner

photo © 2012 計測工房, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

M.I.A.

Sorry to have been silent for a while. JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin  was in Taiwan for Ironman Penghu, where she won her age group to qualify for Kona for the first time. Right after that we moved for the first time in 14 years, and immediately after that I headed to the U.S. to help Keita Sato  get settled in his new training base in Flagstaff. We'll be resuming normal operations shortly with a big roundup of results over the last 2 weeks. Brett Larner
Post a Comment
Read more

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more