Ekiden Weekend Roundup

This weekend saw four major ekidens across the country, with Kansai region university men wrapping their seasons in Kyoto and New Year Ekiden qualification coming to a close for corporate men.

At Saturday's Tango University Ekiden, the Kansai region university championships, two-time defending champ Ritsumeikan University got off to a slow start, only 3rd on the lead stage but getting back on track thanks to a 24:29 CR on the 7.7 km Second Stage by Kohei Okada to take the top spot. Ritsumeikan never looked back from there, taking four of the remaining five stages to make it three in a row in 3:34:32. Kwansei Gakuin University, Biwako University, Kyoto University and Kyoto Sangyo University battled it out for 2nd, Kwansei Gakuin ultimately coming out on top in 3:38:14 and Biwako Gakuin, which made its National University Ekiden debut earlier this month, 3rd in 3:40:25.

Sunday saw the last four corporate regions run their New Year Ekiden national championship qualifiers, three on the roads and one on the track. The Chubu Region Corporate Ekiden played out almost exactly the same way as Tango, with defending champ Toyota starting off in 3rd before taking the top spot thanks to a Second Stage CR of 22:36 for 8.3 km by Bedan Karoki, leading the rest of the way with wins on four out of the five remaining stages, and taking 1st in a CR 3:51:19. Again as at Tango, Toyota Boshoku, Aisan Kogyo and Toenec fought a distant duel for 2nd, Toyota Boshoku taking it in 3:54:42 with Aisan Kogyo 9 seconds back.

Toyota's Karoki, a new recruit to the team season after leaving the disbanding DeNA, took 25 seconds off his stage record and looked like he could be the deciding factor in Toyota knocking Asahi Kasei off the top spot at the New Year Ekiden. Also of note was that Toyota's marathoners Yuma Hattori and Taku Fujimoto both sat Chubu out as they get ready for Fukuoka next month.

The Kansai Region Corporate Ekiden saw winner NTT Nishi Nihon lead start to finish, but unlike Tango and Chubu it was a much closer race, only 54 seconds separating NTT from runner-up Sumitomo Denko at race's end, 3:57:01 to 3:57:55. 3rd place SGH Group was another 28 seconds behind. Likewise at the Chugoku Region Corporate Ekiden, Mazda led the entire way but ended up with only a 25-second margin of victory over Chugoku Denryoku and JFE Steel another 6 seconds back in 3rd. Further back, Nihon Seitetsu Setouchi qualified for the New Year Ekiden for the first time in over 20 years.

With only three teams competing, in place of a road ekiden the Hokuriku region opted to do its New Year Ekiden qualifier as a single track 10000 m race this year, with each team scored by the combined times of its seven men. YKK took the qualifying spot, team members Daisuke Hosomori and Vincent Kipkemoi leading the way in 28:44.68 and 28:47.57.

World Championships Medalist Racewalking Coach Mizuho Sakai Recognized With Highest Coaching Honor

The 2023 Mizuno Sports Mentor Awards recognizing excellence in coaching were held Apr. 23 in Tokyo. Toyo University assistant coach and race walking coach Mizuho Sakai was given a gold award, the program's highest honor, and expressed her thanks and joy in a speech at the award ceremony. The coach of 2023 Budapest World Championships men's 35 km race walk bronze medalist Masatora Kawano , Sakai said, "This is an incredible honor and I'm truly grateful. As a child I wanted to be in the sporting world and I've spent my life in that world. My end goal was always to play a supporting role for other athletes, so I'm honored to be recognized in this way." Sakai's husband Toshiyuki Sakai , head coach of Toyo's three-time Hakone Ekiden champion team, attended the awards gala with her and was also introduced to the audience. After bowing he took a seat in front of her and watched with warmth as she received recognition for her outstanding work. The Mizun

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half

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