Ritsumeikan Men Win Fourth-Straight Tango University Ekiden

The sheer gravitational pull of the Hakone Ekiden drags most of the top high school boys' distance talent to the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region for university. But for those on the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe Kansai Region axis, Saturday's Tango University Ekiden was the peak of the season. In the race's 83rd edition, Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University men overcame a mid-race challenge from Kwansei Gakuin University to score a fourth-straight Tango win.

Ritsumeikan first-year Hayato Omori got the team out of the gate well with a 27:33 to lead the 9.0 km First Stage. Ritsumeikan's next three runners held the lead, but a course record 35:31 on the 12.3 km Fifth Stage from Kwansei Gakuin's Sota Ueda dropped Ritsumeikan to 2nd. Kazuki Moriya extended Kwansei Gakuin's lead from 6 seconds to 1:04, but when KGU's seventh runner Yoshinobu Imai struggled Ritsumeikan's Maki Yamada was three to pick up the lead with a new stage record of 38:32 for 13.3 km. Anchor Ryota Takahata, the only remaining member of Ritsumeikan's overall CR-setting 2018 squad, brought the team home safely to a fourth-straight Tango title in 4:16:20 for the full 8-stage, 84.1 km course, just 20 seconds off the 2018 record.

Kyoto Sangyo University's seventh runner Kosei Urata also overtook KGU's Imai, anchor Kaichi Izumi hanging on to give KSU 2nd in 4:17:36. KGU ended up 3rd in 4:18:51, far out of range of 4th-placer Kansai University. The top 10 auto-qualified for the 2022 race, with Doshisha University picking up the 10th spot in 4:31:11 by 19 seconds over Bukkyo University

Tango University Ekiden

83rd Kansai Region University Men's Championships

Kyotango, Kyoto, 20 Nov. 2021

22 teams, 8 stages, 84.1 km

complete results

Top Individual Stage Performances

First Stage (9.0 km) -Hayato Omori (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 27:33

Second Stage (7.7 km) - Katsuhiko Kojima (Osaka Univ.) - 25:20

Third Stage (7.0 km) - Ryoga Kitazawa (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 19:57

Fourth Stage (9.8 km) - Itsuki Nagata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 30:17

Fifth Stage (12.3 km) - Sota Ueda (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) - 35:31 - CR

Sixth Stage (13.3 km) - Jinichiro Kameda (Kansai Univ.) - 39:47

Seventh Stage (13.3 km) - Maki Yamada (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 38:32 - CR

Eighth Stage (11.7 km) - Ryota Takahata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 35:09

Top Team Performances - top 10 qualify for 2022

1. Ritsumeikan University - 4:16:20

2. Kyoto Sangyo University - 4:17:36

3. Kwansei Gakuin University - 4:18:51

4. Kansei University - 4:20:04

5. Osaka Keizai University - 4:22:14

6. Kyoto University - 4:23:15

7. Biwako Gakuin University - 4:23:58

8. Osaka University - 4:29:49

9. Kinki University - 4:30:37

10. Doshisha University - 4:31:11

------

11. Bukkyo University - 4:31:30

12. Kobe University - 4:31:58

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

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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

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