Kyoto Wins National Women's Ekiden for 19th Time in 43 Years

Host team Kyoto was back on top at Sunday's National Women's Ekiden, taking the lead on the 2nd of the 42.195 km race's 9 legs and rolling on to win its 19th national title in the event's 43-year history in 2:15:26 with 4 individual stage wins.

Kyoto's lead runner Kokoro Nakachi was only 3 seconds behind First Stage winner Erika Tanoura of Chiba, and it didn't take much for its next runner Yua Sato to move into the top spot by 3 seconds. That lead grew to 50 seconds at the end of the Fifth Stage before a stage-winning run from Nagano's Nami Kawakami on the Sixth Stage cut it back to 33 seconds. But driven by stage wins from 7th runner Momoka Onishi and anchor Kaede Kawamura, from there to the end Kyoto pulled away to its final margin of victory of 2:26.

Nagano and Osaka were locked in a duel for 2nd for most of the way, but with only 3 km to go on the 10.0 km anchor stage Fukuoka and early leader Chiba caught up to make it a four-way race. Nagano's Yuna Wada fell off as the pace picked up when they were caught, and it came down to a 3-way battle over the track. Chiba's Nanaka Izawa made the first move, but a counter from Fukuoka's Miyaka Sugata shut her down. Sugata looked like she could hang on to 2nd, but in the home straight Osaka's Natsuki Omori went by to take 2nd in 2:17:52, Fukuoka 3rd in 2:17:53 and Chiba 4th in 2:17:57.

Nagano, Hiroshima, Okayama and Aichi rounded out the 8-deep podium. Former 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka of Nagasaki ran down fast-starting current 5000 m NR holder Nozomi Tanaka of Hyogo halfway through the anchor stage but came 14 seconds short of making the podium, taking 9th in 2:19:03 with Hyogo 13 seconds behind in 10th.

43rd National Women's Ekiden

Kyoto, 12 Jan. 2024

47 teams, 9 stages, 42.195 km

complete results

Top Team Results

1. Kyoto - 2:15:26

2. Osaka - 2:17:52

3. Fukuoka - 2:17:53

4. Chiba - 2:17:57

5. Nagano - 2:18:13

6. Hiroshima - 2:18:42

7. Okayama - 2:18:45

8. Aichi - 2:18:49

9. Nagasaki - 2:19:03

10. Hyogo - 2:19:16

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (6.0 km)

1. Erika Tanoura (Chiba) - 19:17

2. Airi Mashiba (Nagano) - 19:19

3. Sora Shinozakura (Kanagawa) - 19:20

4. Kokoro Nakachi (Kyoto) - 19:20

5. Kana Mizumoto (Osaka) - 19:22

Second Stage (4.0 km)

1. Mona Utsunomiya (Hokkaido) - 12:33

2. Yua Sato (Kyoto) - 12:37

3. Yuzu Nishide (Osaka) - 12:38

4. Nagisa Shimotabira (Miyazaki) - 12:40

5. Haruka Suguro (Kanagawa) - 12:41

Third Stage (3.0 km)

1. Koko Fujisawa (Gunma) - 9:30

2. Koa Setoguchi (Kagoshima) - 9:32

3. Yua Nagamori (Toyama) - 9:33

4. Sena Tatsukawa (Yamaguchi) - 9:37

5. Mayu Ishihara (Okayama) - 9:38

Fourth Stage (4.0 km)

1. Yumi Yamamoto (Kyoto) - 12:49

2. Asa Kobayashi (Hyogo) - 12:58

3. Sara Isobe (Aichi) - 13:02

4. Manami Nishiyama (Kanagawa) - 13:03

5. Azusa Sumi (Chiba) - 13:04

Fifth Stage (4.1075 km)

1. Nodoka Ashida (Kyoto) - 12:58

2. Mei Hosomi (Hiroshima) - 13:05

3. Yua Tsukamoto (Osaka) - 13:12

4. Mai Kubota (Nagano) - 13:17

5. Yui Onotora (Miyagi) - 13:19

Sixth Stage (4.0875 km)

1. Nami Kawakami (Nagano) - 12:51

2. Aika Murai (Osaka) - 12:56

3. Sayo Imanishi (Chiba) - 12:58

4. Tomo Muramatsu (Kyoto) - 13:08

5. Anna Shubulchek (Ibaraki) - 13:15

Seventh Stage (4.0 km)

1. Momoka Onishi (Kyoto) - 12:42

2. Anri Watanabe (Aichi) - 12:52

3. Rio Kawamura (Osaka) - 12:55

4. Kohana Dozono (Kagoshima) - 12:59

5. Mao Ishikawa (Chiba) - 13:03

Eighth Stage (3.0 km)

1. Ema Gendai (Ehime) - 9:46

2. Shiho Kurokawa (Toyama) - 9:52

3. Wakana Minami (Okayama) - 9:54

4. Kirari Takeda (Kagoshima) - 9:56

5. Aika Koreeda (Mie) - 10:02

Ninth Stage (10.0 km)

1. Kaede Kawamura (Kyoto) - 31:48

2. Nanaka Izawa (Chiba) - 32:08

3. Miyaka Sugata (Fukuoka) - 32:10

4. Ririka Hironaka (Nagasaki) - 32:11

5. Kana Kobayashi (Tokushima) - 32:27

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...

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