Skip to main content

Kurashiki and Osaka Kunei Joshi Win Season-Opening High School Ekidens



The 37th Nihonkai High School Boys Ekiden and 32nd Kurayoshi High School Girls Ekiden, the first major national-level high school races of the season, took place Oct. 8 in Kurayoshi, Tottori on courses starting and finishing at Kurayoshi Municipal Field.

In the seven-stage, 42.195 km Nihonkai Ekiden, the 2016 national champion Kurashiki H.S. boys ran 2:07:09 to return to the winner's circle after a loss last year. Running 3rd after the First Stage, Kurashiki moved up into the lead on the Fifth Stage and held that position the rest of the way. For the third year in a row Tottori Johoku H.S. was the top-fnishing school from within Tottori prefecture.

Defending girls' national champions Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. won the five-stage, 21.0975 km Kurayoshi Ekiden for the first time in 1:09:44. The Osaka Kunei girls took over 1st on the Third Stage and ran on to the finish without challenge. For the first time in nineteen years Yazu H.S. was the first Tottori school to finish.

A total of 222 teams from across the country raced in the two ekidens, which commemorate the Tottori Chubu Earthquake and its recovery. The popular and exciting events pass through the towns of Kurayoshi, Yurihamacho and Misasacho.

source article: http://www.nnn.co.jp/news/171009/20171009035.html
translated by Brett Larner
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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

Long Time Coming - Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera's Road to the 2022 United Airlines NYC Half

Back in pre-pandemic days Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera  were still in college, Akasaki at Takushoku University and Onodera at Teikyo University . At the 2019 Ageo City Half Marathon they frontran most of the race together, dead set on finishing in the top two Japanese collegiate spots to win invitations to the 2020 United Airlines NYC Half. For Akasaki it had already been a year and a half wait. Inspired by Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 5th place in finish in New York in 2017 and Kei Katanishi 's 7th-place in 2018, Akasaki went for it his junior year in his debut at the 2018 Ageo Half . "Coming up to 10 km I was in the lead pack and feeling good, so I knew I had a shot at going to New York and got pretty excited," he said. But right after the 10 km turnaround point he tripped and fell, and by the time he was back up the lead group was out of range. He finished 20th in 1:03:07, over a minute and a half behind top Japanese university man Ken Nakayama . "I was f...
1 comment
Read more

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...
2 comments
Read more