Three-time defending Morinomiyako Ekiden champion Meijo University made it four in a row, leading Sunday's National University Women's Ekiden almost start to finish to break its own year-old course record by over a minute and a half.
Rival Ritsumeikan University's leading runner Rinka Hida was the only one to spoil Meijo's party, dropping Meijo's Yuna Wada to win the 6.6 km First Stage by 8 seconds. But on the next stage Yuma Yamamoto put Meijo out front, and with its next three runners all winning their stages, two in stage record time including an impressive 29:14 for the 9.2 km Fifth Stage by 10000 m national collegiate champ Rika Kaseda, its lead only grew. Anchor Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu was 2nd-fastest on her stage, but with a lead of nearly a kilometer she was never in danger of getting caught as she broke the tape in 2:02:57, a full 1:37 under the record for the 6-stage, 38.1 km course that it set last year. Road records might not be worth what they used to be, but with a final margin of victory of 2:51 there was no denying how good the Meijo women were.
2nd in six of the last seven years, Daito Bunka University was down around the 4th-place/5th-place line for the first four stages before its best two runners turned things around. Fifth runner Natsuki Sekiya was second-fastest on the longest stage behind Kaseda to move DBU into 3rd, and a brilliant 22:17 course record on the 6.7 km anchor stage, 28 seconds under the old record, by 2019 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuka Suzuki put DBU into 2nd yet again.
5th last year, Nittai University was the biggest surprise of the day, its second runner Haruko Hosaka moving up from 5th to 3rd and the team staying there until the long Fifth Stage where Izumi Kurihara overtook Ritsumeikan's Misaki Matsumoto for 2nd. Anchor Yukika Miyauchi didn't have what it took to hold off Suzuki, but with the fourth-fastest anchor time she held onto 3rd, tying Nittai's best-ever placing.
Ritsumeikan was 4th, its first time outside the top three since 2002. Like Nittai, Kansai University tied its best-ever placing at 5th, with Osaka Gakuin University, Josai University and Matsuyama University rounding out the eight-deep podium and earning spots at next year's race. The battle for 8th was tough over the last two stages with four teams finishing within a minute of Matsuyama, Takushoku University coming closest at just 20 seconds behind Matsuyama for a school-record 9th.
In the best individual head-to-head race of the day, far back in the field 5000 m national collegiate champ Saya Nakajima blazed up through the back end of the field with the third-fastest time on the 6.9 km Third Stage. En route she passed unknown Noriko Igarashi, who did the usual and tried to latch on. But where most people in her situation hang on for just a few seconds, Igarashi kept surging back in front of Nakajima, again and again and again and again as Nakajima upped her pace to get rid of her. Nakajima eventually got away and Igarashi ended up with only the 15th-fastest time on her stage, but by the end of the race Igarashi's Tohoku Fukushi University finished three places up on Nakajima's Kanoya Taiiku University. There's no doubt Igarashi staying with Nakajima as long as she did played a role in setting that up for the runners still to come.
University women still have one more big ekiden ahead, the year-ending Dec. 30 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, the other national collegiate championships. Before then expect to see many of the stage winners today at November's Kanto Region University Championships, December's National Championships, and elsewhere.
Morinomiyako Ekiden
National University Women's Ekiden Championships
Sendai, Miyagi, 25 Oct. 2020
25 teams, 6 stages 38.1 km
Top Team Results - top 8 auto-qualify for 2021 race
1. Meijo University - 2:02:57 - CR
2. Daito Bunka University - 2:05:48
3. Nittai University - 2:06:11
4. Ritsumeikan University - 2:07:00
5. Kansai University - 2:07:48
6. Osaka Gakuin University - 2:08:34
7. Josai University - 2:08:46
8. Matsuyama University - 2:09:59
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9. Takushoku University - 2:10:19
10. Kyoto Sangyo University - 2:10:22
11. Juntendo University - 2:10:27
12. Kyoto Koka University - 2:10:49
Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage - 6.6 km
1. Rinka Hida (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 21:16
2. Yuna Wada (Meijo Univ.) - 21:24
3. Karin Murofushi (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 21:29
Second Stage - 3.9 km
1. Haruko Hosaka (Nittai Univ.) - 12:30
2. Yuma Yamamoto (Meijo Univ.) - 12:31
3. Yuki Akiyama (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 12:38
Third Stage - 6.9 km
1. Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) - 21:37 - CR
2. Miyu Nakata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 22:33
3. Saya Nakajima (Kanoya Taiiku Univ.) - 22:39
Fourth Stage - 4.8 km
1. Yuka Masubuchi (Meijo Univ.) - 15:40
2. Karin Akahori (Nittai Univ.) - 15:50
3. Mao Kosugi (Kansai Univ.) - 15:51
Fifth Stage - 9.2 km
1. Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) - 29:14 - CR
2. Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 29:47
3. Yui Komatsu (Matsuyama Univ.) - 30:19
Sixth Stage - 6.7 km
1. Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 22:17 - CR
2. Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) - 22:31 (CR)
3. Yuna Nakayama (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 22:47
© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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