Skip to main content

Kyoto Wins National Women's Ekiden Title for 17th Time


Bringing together everyone from the top junior high school runners to the pros, the National Women's Ekiden took place in Kyoto on Jan. 12. Hosts Kyoto outran Miyagi and Tokyo to win the national title for the 17th time, extending its lead as the winningest team in the National Women's Ekiden 38-year history.

The race started and finished at Kyoto's Takebishi Stadium, covering the full marathon distance in nine stages. Teams from all 47 prefectures competed for the national title. On the First Stage, Nagasaki's Ririka Hironaka, who last month cleared the Tokyo Olympics 5000 m qualifying standard, opened a lead of over 30 seconds on 2nd place and broke the stage record dating back to 2003.

Nagasaki held the lead over the next two stages, but near the end of the Fourth Stage they were run down by Nagano. On the Fifth Stage high school 3rd-year Rina Kimura tied the stage record to take Miyagi from 3rd past Nagano into 1st. But from the Fifth through Seventh stages a trio of runners from Kyoto's Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. ran stage-winning times, including stage record ties by Fifth Stage runner Azusa Mihara and Seventh Stage runner Yu Muramatsu, to move up through the field, putting junior high schooler Ai Segawa into position to take over the lead.

Kyoto anchor Mao Ichiyama from the Wacoal corporate team ran conservatively to protect the team's leading position, bringing them home for a record-setting 17th national title in 2:16:15. Miyagi was 10 seconds back in 2nd, with Tokyo another 11 seconds behind in 3rd.

38th National Women's Ekiden

Kyoto, 1/12/20
47 teams, 9 stages, 42.195 km
complete results

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (6.0 km) - Ririka Hironaka (Nagasaki) - 18:39 - CR
Second Stage (4.0 km ) - Yuri Tasaki (Miyazaki) - 12:32
Third Stage (3.0 km) - Akari Matsumoto (Oita) - 9:19
Fourth Stage (4.0 km) - Haruka Kokai (Miyagi) - 12:54
Fifth Stage (4.1075 km) -Azusa Mihara (Kyoto) - 12:55 - CR tie
Sixth Stage (4.0875 km) - Tomo Muramatsu (Kyoto) - 12:57
Seventh Stage (4.0 km) - Yu Muramatsu (Kyoto) - 12:21 - CR tie
Eighth Stage (3.0 km) - Yumi Yamamoto (Oita) - 10:00
Ninth Stage (10.0 km) - Hitomi Niiya (Tokyo) - 30:57

Top Team Results
1. Kyoto - 2:16:15
2. Miyagi - 2:16:25
3. Tokyo - 2:16:36
4. Nagano - 2:16:37
5. Kagoshima - 2:17:04
6. Hyogo - 2:17:42
7. Gunma - 2:17:56
8. Osaka - 2:17:55
9. Okayama - 2:18:06
10. Nagasaki - 2:18:08

source article:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200112/k10012243171000.html
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...
Post a Comment
Read more

16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda , announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month. Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so ...
Post a Comment
Read more