Osaka Kunei H.S. Beats Top Corporate and University Competition at Kitakyushu Women's Ekiden

In the last major women's ekiden of the season, 2016 National High School Ekiden champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. made up for their loss at the 2017 Nationals last month as they outran top corporate and university competition to win the 29th Kitakyushu Invitational Women's Ekiden.

5th on the opening leg, Osaka Kunei moved up to 2nd behind the Toto corporate women's team on the Second Stage thanks to a strong run from third-year Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu. Building on Takamatsu's momentum, third runner Ayaka Murao put Osaka Kunei 7 seconds ahead of Toto, fourth runner Hikari Takeuchi opening up their lead to 34 seconds, and its last two women Ami Taniguchi and Mai Misaki extending that to 48 seconds by race's end.

Scored in separate divisions, Osaka Kunei and Toto were each awarded 1st-place trophies, but as the first across the line Osaka Kunei was only the 2nd high school in Kitakyushu's 29-year history to take the top spot overall. Local power Kitakyushu Municipal H.S. were 3rd, outrunning 2017 National Corporate Women's Ekiden winner Universal Entertainment by 5 seconds.

29th Kitakyushu Invitational Women's Ekiden

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 1/21/18
22 teams, 6 stages, 32.8 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results - Open Division
1. Toto - 1:47:59
2. Universal Entertainment - 1:49:13
3. Kyudenko - 1:50:51
4. Canon AC Kyushu - 1:51:02
5. Osaka Gakuin Univ. - 1:51:32

Top Team Results - High School Division
1. Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. - 1:47:11
2. Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S. - 1:49:08
3. Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. - 1:49:19
4. Sera H.S. - 1:50:40
5. Kitakyushu Municipal H.S. - 1:51:41

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (4.2 km) - Hibiki Onishi (Sera H.S.) - 14:00
Second Stage (5.9 km) - Shuru Bulo (Toto) - 18:23
Third Stage (5.1 km) - Erika Ikeda (Higo Ginko) - 16:46
Fourth Stage (5.9 km) - Yume Goto (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 19:29
Fifth Stage (H.S. - 4. 9 km) - Ami Taniguchi (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) - 16:23
Sixth Stage (H.S. - 6.8 km) - Mai Misaki (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 20:50
Sixth Stage (open - 11.7 km) - Mai Shinozuka (Universal Entertainment) - 37:47

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

Shiojiri, Kasai and Tazawa Scratch from Hachioji Long Distance, 5000 m Dropped from Program (updated)

On Nov. 15 the East Japan Corporate Federation announced that 10000 m national champion and Paris Olympian Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) and Budapest World Championships team member Ren Tazawa (Toyota) have both withdrawn from the 10000 m at the Nov. 23 Hachioji Long Distance meet. This year's Hachioji Long Distance features a special heat set up to target the 27:00.00 qualifying standard for next year's Tokyo World Championships. Along with Kasai and Tazawa, national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) and other top-level Japanese talent are scheduled to compete. After last January's New Year Ekiden , Tazawa sustained an injury that forced him to miss May's National Championships 10000 m and other races including the Paris Olympics. At the end of September he ran 13:36.99 for 5th at the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup meet, but, he said, "My balance felt off and the back of my left knee hurt." In Kasai's case, after winning the national title in M

japan running news

Search This Blog