Coming off a seventh-straight win at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden, five-time Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden national champion Meijo University led start to finish to win it again for the sixth year in a row Saturday in Shizuoka. Meijo's first four runners, Azumi Nagira, Nanaka Yonezawa, Miyu Yamada and Asuka Ishimatsu all won their stages to give Meijo what was pretty much an unbreakable lead. Undefeated in collegiate ekiden competition up to this point in her career, Meijo 3rd-year Nanase Tanimoto lost to Daito Bunka University 1st-year Sarah Wanjiru by 24 seconds on the 10.5 km Fifth Stage but still handed off to captain Yuka Masubuchi 1:04 ahead.
Masubuchi ran a CR 19:27 for her 6.0 km to hand off to anchor Saki Harada on course record pace. On the tough anchor stage, 8.3 km climbing 175 m mostly in its second half, Harada proved the weak link on the team at only 5th-fastest in the field, but while that wasn't enough for Meijo to better its own CR Harada had no problems bringing Meijo home for the win in 2:22:42 for the complete 43.4 km course.
The race for 2nd was a close one almost the entire way between Daito Bunka, Nittai University and Ritsumeikan University. Less than 30 seconds apart at the start of the anchor stage, Nittai's Haruko Hosaka was 2nd-fastest in the field, bringing Nittai home 2nd in 2:24:04. Daito Bunka was next in 2:24:24, with Ritsumeikan dropping back to 4th in 2:25:13. Last year's runner-up Osaka Gakuin University and Josai University battled back-and-forth for 5th over the last five stages, with Osaka Gakuin anchor Chihiro Sato bettering Josai's Hinata Kaneko to finish 2:26:23 to 2:26:37.
The race for the bottom of the podium is usually one of the most exciting parts of an ekiden. Last year's Second Stage winner Hikaru Kitagawa made it interesting on the Sixth Stage by dragging Osaka Geijutsu University up from 13th to 7th, positioning four teams in range of the last two podium spots in 7th and 8th. At the start of the anchor stage Chuo University, Tohoku Fukushi University and Osaka Geijutsu were all within 30 seconds in 7th through 9th, with Tamagawa University another 17 seconds behind in 10th and Takushoku University 1 second behind Tamagawa in 11th.
Tohoku Fukushi anchor Amisa Murayama and Osaka Geijutsu's Anna Suzuki worked together to overtake and then drop Chuo's Reina Kato, and it looked like both would be rewarded with podium spots after finishing 10th and 11th last year. But out of nowhere Takushoku anchor Saki Arai flew by on the steepest part of the climb to the finish, running the fastest time on the stage and moving Takushoku up to 7th and its first podium finish without collegiate 10000 m record holder Seira Fuwa. Murayama hung on to finish two seconds behind, giving Tohoku Fukushi the last spot on the podium, with Suzuki falling seconds behind for a 9th-place finish for Osaka Geijutsu. Chuo another 5 seconds behind in 10th.
Interestingly, out of the top ten teams all but last year's top two Meijo and Osaka Gakuin were faster this time, almost three and a half minutes faster in Daito Bunka's case. But even though Meijo wasn't up to the level of past years' teams it was still in another league from the competition. And there's no sign of an end to its dynasty. Out of the seven women who ran this year, only Masubuchi is a 4th-year, and only Tanimoto a 3rd-year. Yamada, only 6 seconds off Yonezawa's Third Stage CR from last year, is a 1st-year. It would take very little for next year's Meijo lineup to be stronger, meaning that even though almost all their competition was better this time around, it'll take even more to try to break Meijo's control of the collegiate women's ekiden circuit.
Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden
National University Women's Invitational Ekiden
Shizuoka, 30 Dec. 2023
24 teams, 7 stages, 43.4 km
Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (4.1 km) - Azumi Nagira (2nd yr., Meijo Univ.) - 13:01
Second Stage (6.8 km) - Nanaka Yonezawa (2nd yr., Meijo Univ.) - 20:57
Third Stage (3.3 km) - Miyu Yamada (1st yr., Meijo Univ.) - 10:09
Fourth Stage (4.4 km) - Asuka Ishimatsu (2nd yr., Meijo Univ.) - 14:08
Fifth Stage (10.5 km) - Sarah Wanjiru (1st yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) - 34:15
Sixth Stage (6.0 km) - Yuka Masubuchi (4th yr., Meijo Univ.) - 19:27 - CR
Seventh Stage (8.3 km) - Saki Arai (2nd yr., Takushoku Univ.) - 29:48
Top Team Results - 8-deep podium
1. Meijo University - 2:22:42
2. Nittai University - 2:24:04
3. Daito Bunka University - 2:24:24
4. Ritsumeikan University - 2:25:13
5. Osaka Gakuin University - 2:26:23
6. Josai University - 2:26:37
7. Takushoku University - 2:26:59
8. Tohoku Fukushi University - 2:27:01
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9. Osaka Geijutsu University - 2:27:29
10. Chuo University - 2:27:34
11. National Select Team - 2:28:07
12. Kansai University - 2:28:49
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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