Defending Champ Aoyama Gakuin Takes Hakone Ekiden Day One By a Kilometer

Chuo University came out hard on Day One of the 2025 Hakone Ekiden, leading from the gun until partway through Hakone's great equalizer, the uphill Fifth Stage. Gunning for his older brother Yamato Yoshii's 1:00:40 CR for the 21.3 km opening leg, Chuo's Shunsuke Yoshii went it alone, coming up short of the the record at 1:01:07, 1:00:33 half marathon pace, but almost a minute and a half ahead of nearest competitor Yudai Kiyama from Komazawa University.

Itta Tameike ran what would normally be a great time on the 23.1 km Second Stage, 1:06:39, but behind him collegiate 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon record holder Richard Etir of Tokyo Kokusai University, Soka University's top man Hibiki Yoshida and last year's Second Stage winner Asahi Kuroda of defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University all broke the 1:05:49 course record to cut Chuo's lead down to 40 seconds. In Hakone's first 100 years only two runners had ever broken 66 minutes on the Second Stage, and here three people did it, Etir in 1:05:31, 59:51 half marathon pace, Yoshida in 1:05:43 and Kuroda in 1:05:44, both 1:00:02 half marathon pace. What a time to be alive.

Chuo's chances of pulling off a Day One win and putting favorites AGU, Komazawa and KGU on the back foot for Day Two got a big boost when third runner Hayate Honma ran 35 seconds faster on the 21.4 km Fourth Stage than the next-best time, clocking 1:00:16, 59:25 half marathon pace, and taking Chuo's lead to its biggest that far into the race, 1:34. Fourth runner Hinata Shirakawa lost ground to AGU's Aoi Ota, winner of last year's Third Stage and fastest again today with a 1:00:24 for the 20.9 km Fourth Stage, 1:00:59 half marathon pace.

Ota brought the defending champs into 2nd, cutting down Chuo's lead to just 45 seconds with the uphill Fifth Stage looming ahead. Entire teams' fortunes have been written and lost based on what happens on the Fifth Stage, climbing 800 m mostly in the middle 10 km of the 20.8 km leg, and despite a 6th-best run by its uphill specialist Daito Sonoki Chuo could only watch its hopes of its first Day One win in 24 years slip away.

AGU's Hiroki Wakabayashi was calm and under control as he cut the distance to Sonoki down, and when Sonoki started to struggle near the Ohiradai checkpoint only 7 km into the leg it was clear that it was going to be AGU's day. Wakabayashi ran him down at 9.5 km, sailing by and never looking back as he broke the CR in 1:09:11. Wakabayashi was so spent that he had to be helped up on stage for the award ceremony and spent most of it sitting in a chair.

Sonoki hung on to 2nd 1:47 back, while a great 1:09:31 run from Waseda University's Shinsaku Kudo took them all the way up to 3rd another 42 seconds back. 2nd at both Izumo and Nationals this season, Komazawa was 4th but a kilometer behind AGU with a margin of 3:16. A quality run from #4-ranked Soka put them at 5th 21 seconds behind Komazawa, with Izumo and Nationals winner Koku Gakuin University a disappointing 6th over 5 minutes behind AGU.

Last year's 3rd-placer Josai University was 7th, Yosenkai qualifying race winner Rikkyo University 8th, last year's 4th-placer Toyo University 9th and Nittai University, Tokyo Kokusai University, Chuo Gakuin University and Juntendo University all finishing within 37 seconds of each other in 10th through 13th.

What to expect tomorrow? Chuo and Waseda don't really have the lineups left to compete with AGU's ultra-deep lineup and will probably be racing to stay in the top 5. Komazawa is an almost hopeless 3:16 behind, and even though star 3rd-year Keita Sato is set to run the Seventh Stage and should pick up at least a minute if he's back to full fitness from injury problems earlier this year, there's almost no chance of them closing that kind of gap without an AGU meltdown. Even more so for KGU, who have already run their two best people, 2:06:18 marathoner Kiyoto Hirabayashi and 1:00:43 half marathoner Ayumu Yamamoto. So, barring disaster, it's going to be two in a row for AGU.

But like always in the best years, there's a lot of drama down around the cutoff line to make the 10-deep podium. Top 10 earns teams a place at the Izumo Ekiden and the next year's Hakone, with 11th and lower sent down to October's Yosenkai qualifier instead. Soka and Josai are pretty secure to stay in the top 10, with Toyo and Rikkyo having better than even chances of doing the same. Especially Toyo. That leaves the Nittai-TKU-CGU-Juntendo nexus in contention for the last spot, and perpetual top-10 finisher Teikyo University close behind. Anything can happen.

The Day Two broadcast pre-game show starts at 7:00 a.m. Jan. 3 Japan time, with streaming on TVer starting at 7:50 and the race kicking off at 8:00. JRN is on-site at the Day Two starting line and will do some coverage on @JRNLive. See you bright and early for the back half coverage of the world's greatest road race.

101st Hakone Ekiden Day One

Tokyo-Hakone, 2 Jan. 2025

21 teams, 5 stages, 107.5 km

complete results

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (21.3 km)

1. Shunsuke Yoshii (Chuo Univ.) - 1:01:07 - all-time #4

2. Yudai Kiyama (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:39

3. Ryuto Hirashima (Nittai Univ.) - 1:02:40

4. Junpei Maseda (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:43

5. Teruki Shimada (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:45

6. Hiromichi Nonaka (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:47

7. Mitsuki Hirayae (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:48

8. Takuma Ohama (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 1:02:49

9. Yuta Kubode (Josai Univ.) - 1:02:51

10. Shunya Udagawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:51

Second Stage (23.1 km)

1. Richard Etir (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:05:31 - CR

2. Hibiki Yoshida (Soka Univ.) - 1:05:43 (CR) - all-time #2

3. Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin. Univ.) - 1:05:44 (CR) - all-time #3

4. Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:06:14 - all-time #9

5. Hiroki Yamanaka (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:06:22

6. Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:06:24

7. Kento Baba (Rikkyo Univ.) - 1:06:32

8. Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:06:38

9. Itta Tameike (Chuo Univ.) - 1:06:39

10. James Mutuku (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:06:55

Third Stage (21.4 km)

1. Hayate Honma (Chuo Univ.) - 1:00:16 - all-time #4

2. Stephen Muthini (Soka Univ.) - 1:00:51 - all-time #5

3. Shunpei Yamaguchi (Waseda Univ.) - 1:01:15 - all-time #7

4. Masaya Tsurukawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:51

5. Ayumu Yamamoto (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:54

6. Haru Taninaka (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:05

7. Itsuki Hirabayashi (Josai Univ,) - 1:02:28

8. Haruto Mukae (Toyo Univ.) - 1:02:40

9. Ryota Tominaga (Nittai Univ.) - 1:02:45

10. Kenshin Ebisawa (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:02:46

Fourth Stage (20.9 km)

1. Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:00:24 - all-time #2

2. Rui Aoki (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:09 - all-time #7

3. Ryotaro Kishimoto (Toyo Univ.) - 1:01:15 - all-time #8

4. Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:01:24 - all-time #9

5. Shunsuke Tajima (Nittai Univ.) - 1:01:35

6. Yuma Nozawa (Soka Univ.) - 1:01:44

7. Shoto Horikoshi (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:01:48

8. Masaki Nagaya (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:00

9. Hinata Shirakawa (Chuo Univ.) - 1:02:03

10. Koki Obayashi (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:02:35

Fifth Stage (20.8 km, ~800m uphill)

1. Hiroki Wakabayashi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:09:11 - CR

2. Shinsaku Kudo (Waseda Univ.) - 1:09:31 - all-time #3

3. Shoya Saito (Josai Univ.) - 1:10:50

4. Takuma Yamakawa (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:10:55

5. Raiki Yamamoto (Rikkyo Univ.) - 1:11:29

6. Daito Sonoki (Chuo Univ.) - 1:11:43

7. Daiki Shibata (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:11:47

8. Masayoshi Yuge (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:12:03

9. Yu Miyazaki (Toyo Univ.) - 1:12:16

10. Shoki Yamaguchi (Soka Univ.) - 1:12:18

Team Results

1. Aoyama Gakuin University - 5:20:01 - all-time #2

2. Chuo University - 5:21:48 - all-time #5

3. Waseda University - 5:22:30 - all-time #6

4. Komazawa University - 5:23:17 - all-time #8

5. Soka University - 5:23:38 - all-time #9

6. Koku Gakuin University - 5:25:26

7. Josai University - 5:25:58

8. Rikkyo University - 5:27:27

9. Toyo University - 5:27:53

10. Nittai University - 5:28:03

11. Tokyo Kokusai University - 5:28:34

12. Chuo Gakuin University - 5:28:37

13. Juntendo University - 5:28:40

14. Teikyo University - 5:29:28

15. Yamanashi Gakuin University - 5:31:03

16. Hosei University - 5:31:25

17. Nihon University - 5:33:04

OP - Kanto Region Student Alliance - 5:33:05

18. Kanagawa University - 5:33:39

19. Daito Bunka University - 5:33:44

20. Senshu University - 5:36:50

Takeshi Soh Reflects on 54 Years in the Sport on His Retirement as Asahi Kasei Head Coach

After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...

Anonymous said…

Thank you as always

January 2, 2025 at 7:12 PM

What a day 1!
Top bad that barring a fall/injury AGU has it in the bag already. Their 6th stage runner is very good and experienced in the section and the gap will likely get wider before stage 7. And their depth after that is still very good.

Kom.azawa should be encouraged by their 1st years.
Chuo gave It all and a great come back after last year disappointment. Koku Gakuin clearly had some runners not at their peak.
Disappointment of the daywas Daito Bunka.

I thought 2nd stage was insane, It was already fantastic last couple of years but this onewas superb.

Aoi Ota ends his college career with another stellar Hakone, his times second only to Yegon and top japanese in section 3&4. Too bad we didnt get to see him on stage 2.
I didnt think Wakabayashi had that in him butkudos to him, fantastic.

On to day 2 thought the top spot should be out of reach for other teams

January 3, 2025 at 7:28 AM

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