The year's biggest races are just around the corner, with four days of championship ekiden racing in the space of five coming up this week. First up on Dec. 30 is the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden university women's national championship, 7 stages totaling 43.4 km through the foothills of Mt. Fuji. Meijo University has won the last three years, setting the course record of 2:21:38 last year, and it's going to win again. Meijo's core quartet Narumi Kobayashi, Yuma Yamamoto, Yuna Arai and Yuna Wada all made the Japanese top 25 for 5000 m or 10000 m this year, more than all other universities combined, and unless Meijo has some kind of major setback there's just no way for its strongest competition, perpetual 2nd-placer Daito Bunka University, to match it.
The most exciting thing to look forward to will be seeing how Takushoku University 1st-year Seira Fuwa, 30:45.21 in her 10000 m debut earlier this month, does on a more technical course than she has raced this season. You can't expect her to carry the whole team, but Fuwa has done enough this season to probably have an impact on the TV ratings. Fuji TV will broadcast the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden live starting at 9:50 a.m. local time on the 30th, with streaming on its premium subscription service. You can also try mov3.co, with a popup blocker recommended. We'll be covering the race on @JRNLive.
After a day off for New Year's Eve, corporate men get their day at the New Year Ekiden national championships, 100 km through the Gunma suburbs divided into 7 stages. Defending champ Fujitsu has been in the news lately for losing the champion's pennant that had been used since the first edition 65 years ago, something serious enough that the CEO of the corporation held a press conference to apologize. Whatever effect that's had on team morale, Fujitsu came back from atrocious performances by its Olympic team members Yuta Bando, Hiroki Matsueda and Shogo Nakamura to win November's East Japan regional qualifier. The ascendant GMO team was only 26 seconds behind in 2nd, making them a threat at the New Year. Honda was 3rd in East Japan but is almost always stronger at the main event.
Last year's runner-up Toyota was beaten by the 2nd-tier Toyota Boshoku team at the Chubu region qualifier, due in part to a rare bad run from Bedan Karoki. Three weeks later Toyota runners were strong at the Hachioji Long Distance meet, with Tomoki Ota, Kazuya Nishiyama and Hideyuki Tanaka all sub-28 and marathoner Yuma Hattori racing for the first time since suffering heat stroke at the Olympics. Toyota Boshoku will likely be shooting for a place on the 8-deep podium, but expect Toyota to do better than at its regional race. 2021 New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer and course record holder Asahi Kasei broke the course record at the Kyushu region qualifier and likewise had a stack of good performances in Hachioji, so expect it to be a factor up front again too.
It doesn't look like TBS has official streaming, but mov3.co might come to the rescue again. The broadcast starts at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 1 Japan time, and again we'll be covering it on @JRNLive. If other streaming options turn up for either Mt. Fuji or the New Year Ekidens we'll update this preview and tweet the links on race day.
After those warmups the main event lands on Jan. 2 and 3 with the university men's Hakone Ekiden, 10 stages totaling 217.1 km from central Tokyo to the mountains and back. 65 million people watched at least some part of the 2021 broadcast, so you know they must be on to something. NTV broadcasts the whole thing live starting at 7:00 a.m. both days. It's the best sports event broadcast in the world, and as you'd expect they keep it a locked-down secret only for Japan. So again, mov3.co is probably the best bet for trying to watch from abroad. JRN will once again cover it live on @JRNLive, and look for our full Hakone preview tomorrow.
Here's to the best four days of racing of the year, every year.
Comments