Shiseido Breaks Princess Ekiden Course Record

Coming back from a scandal earlier this year in which a non-Japanese former team member spoke out about abusive behavior by male coaches toward the team's female athletes, Shiseido was back with what looked like a more positive team culture, dominating Sunday's Princess Ekiden with a course record win.

Shiseido didn't quite lead start-to-finish, but it came close. Tomoka Kimura got it rolling with a 21:44 stage record on the 7.0 km opening leg, 38 seconds under the old record. Former national champ Daiichi Seimei's Hibiki Sakuragawa broke the course record on the Second Stage to put her team 5 seconds ahead of Shiseido, but it didn't last long as on the next stage Shiseido's Naruha Sato retook the lead and built up a margin that Shiseido's last three runners held. Anchor Kain Maeda brought the team home in 2:16:41 for the full 42.195 km distance, 21 seconds under the previous course record and securing the team's place at next month's Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championship race.

Times were fast all around. Along with Shiseido's overall course record and stage records from Kimura and fifth runner Yuka Takashima, the Second and Fourth Stages also saw new records. Hibiki Onishi (Universal) was fastest on the 3.6 km Second Stage, the race's shortest, 29 seconds under the old record in 10:48. Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) took 3 seconds off the 3.8 km Fourth Stage record, winning it in 11:25.

Muthoni gave a boost to the young Daiso team that helped it finish 15th and qualify for the Queens Ekiden for the first time. Also giving it a boost was the fact that the qualifying bracket was expanded from 14 to 20 teams this year. Iwatani Sango took 12th to make Nationals for the first time, fair and square, and like Daiso the Nitori and Saitama Ika Daigaku Group teams made the relaxed grade for the first time, finishing 17th and 19th. Another newer team, Comodi Iida, was locked in a tough duel with Canon over the final two stages for the final qualifying spot, but Canon anchor Natsumi Furukawa was too strong for Comodi Iida's Kaho Nishizawa, opening a gap of 16 seconds by the end of the 6.695 km Sixth Stage to send Comodi Iida home.

The influx of new teams was a good sign, and with Iwatani Sangyo's sponsor company having been one of the race broadcast's main advertisers their success at making it to Nationals was a win for the entire system. They and the rest of the qualifiers will join the top 8 from last year's Nationals at the main event on Nov. 28.

7th Princess Ekiden

National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier

Munakata, Fukuoka, 24 Oct., 2021

31 teams, 6 stages, 42.195 km

complete results

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage - 7.0 km

1. Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido) - 21:44 - CR

2. Haruka Kokai (Daiichi Seimei) - 21:51

3. Misaki Nishida (Edion) - 22:16

Second Stage - 3.6 km

1. Hibiki Onishi (Universal) - 10:48 - CR

2. Hibiki Sakuragawa (Daiichi Seimei) - 11:03

3. Yui Yabuta (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 11:07

Third Stage - 10.7 km

1. Kaede Hagitani (Edion) - 34:18

2. Naruha Sato (Shiseido) - 34:40

3. Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 34:51

Fourth Stage - 3.8 km

1. Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) - 11:25 - CR

2. Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) - 11:27

3. Naomi Muthoni (Universal) - 11:28

Fifth Stage - 10.4 km

1. Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) - 34:18 - CR

2. Honoka Tanaike (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 34:44

3. Yuna Daito (Tenmaya) - 34:46

Sixth Stage - 6.695 km

1. Yukari Abe (Shimamura) - 21:47

2. Momoko Watanabe (Tenmaya) - 22:09

3. Ayari Harada (Daiichi Seimei) - 22:16

Top Team Results

top 20 teams qualify for National Corporate Women's Ekiden

1. Shiseido - 2:16:41 - CR

2. Tenmaya - 2:18:02

3. Daiichi Seimei - 2:18:32

4. Otsuka Seiyaku - 2:18:49

5. Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo - 2:19:05

6. Edion - 2:19:16

7. Hitachi - 2:19:29

8. Daihatsu - 2:19:45

9. Uniqlo - 2:20:11

10. Route Inn Hotels - 2:20:14

11. Shimamura - 2:20:27

12. Iwatani Sangyo - 2:20:37

13. Starts - 2:20:44

14. Universal - 2:20:49

15. Daiso - 2:20:51

16. Kyocera - 2:21:00

17. Nitori - 2:21:35

18. Sysmex - 2:22:21

19. Saitama Ika Daigaku Group - 2:22:39

20. Canon - 2:23:39

-----

21. Comodi Iida - 2:23:55

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges. Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...

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