Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden Preview - Collegiate Women's National Championship

The last big race of the year is Monday's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, the season-ending national championship race for university women. Between Mt. Fuji and October's Morinomiyako Ekiden, up to this season Meijo University was undefeated in 13-straight championship ekiden races, with 7-straight wins at Morinomiyako and 6 at Mt. Fuji. But nothing lasts forever, and at this year's Morinomiyako the last big dynasty school before Meijo, Ritsumeikan University, winner at Morinomiyako from 2011 to 2015 and at Mt. Fuji from 2013 to 2017, outran a flailing Meijo squad to take the win for the first time in 9 years. Its runners took stage wins on 3 of the 6 legs, Yumi Yamamoto breaking the Second Stage CR, Tomo Muramatsu the Third Stage CR, and anchor Makoto Tsuchiya outrunning Meijo captain Nanase Tanimoto for the win.

Meijo's big names, especially Tanimoto and Nanaka Yonezawa, have been off their best most of this season, and it showed when they were only 4th at Morinomiyako. Mt. Fuji is a more technical course with a big uphill finish and demands a wider range of skills than Morinomiyako, but there hasn't been much to show that Meijo has turned it around in time to have a shot at beating Ritsumeikan this time.

But to be fair Ritsumeikan was only 4th at Mt. Fuji last year after a 3rd-place finish at Morinomiyako, so it's not like they have it in the bag. Daito Bunka University has been 2nd at Mt. Fuji 4 times in the last 6 years and 2nd at Morinomiyako 10 times in the last 12 years, and one of these days it's going to make the jump. Daito Bunka runners took the other three stage wins at Morinomiyako including an opening leg CR by Mariya Noda, and with star runner Sarah Wanjiru stronger than ever with a new collegiate 5000 m record of 15:00.86 earlier this month, this could be its year.

Josai University beat Meijo at Morinomiyako too, and it's been coming up over the last few years, going from a steady 6th-7th there to 4th in 2023 and 3rd this year. On the current hilly version of the Mt. Fuji race it has yet to do better than 5th, but chances look good that it'll go at least 4th this time around. Last year's Mt. Fuji 2nd-placer Nittai University was a dismal 9th at Morinomiyako, and based on that a top 5 finish would be stellar.

7th at Morinomiyako and at last year's Mt. Fuji, Takushoku University will field collegiate 10000 m record holder Seira Fuwa for her last college ekiden. Fuwa rewrote the university women's ekiden book as a 1st-year 3 years ago, but with too many long races in too short a time at too young an age she's spent most of the time since then injured. Back to racing regularly for her last season, Fuwa has been about 3 minutes slower for 10 km and 10000 m than she was pre-injury, typically in the 33-minute range at best. It's not likely she'll set things on fire, but as the last time we'll see this big talent here it's a race of special significance.

Fuji TV is broadcasting the race live starting at 9:55 local time Monday, with streaming on TVer. Live tweeting isn't much of a thing any more, but we'll have some coverage on @JRNLive. The complete field for Monday's race, with bib numbers and region:

1. Ritsumeikan University (Kansai)

2. Daito Bunka University (Kanto)

3. Josai University (Kanto)

4. Meijo University (Tokai)

5. Tohoku Fukushi University (Tohoku)

6. Osaka Gakuin University (Kansai)

7. Takushoku University (Kanto)

8. Tsukuba University (Kanto)

9. Nittai University (Kanto)

10. Chuo University (Kanto)

11. Juntendo University (Kanto)

12. Teikyo Kagaku University (Kanto)

13. Toyo University (Kanto)

14. Tamagawa University (Kanto)

15. Kansai Gaikokugo University (Kansai)

16. Hyogo University (Kansai)

17. Asia University (Kanto)

18. Kyoto Sangyo University (Kansai)

19. Osaka Geijutsu University (Kansai)

20. Kansai University (Kansai)

21. Chukyo Gakuin University (Tokai)

22. Tokyo Nogyo University (Kanto)

23. National Select Team

24. Shizuoka Select Team

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

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."...

japan running news

Search This Blog