It's hard to beat the numbers, and with a whole team of current students at 2024 National High School Ekiden winner Saku Chosei H.S., Saku Chosei alumni, and junior high schoolers bound to go there, 3-time National Men's Ekiden defending champ Nagano had enough of them to score a record 4th-straight win Sunday in Hiroshima.
Saku Chosei's Yamato Hamaguchi got it off with a 19:33 win on the 7.0 km opening leg just 2 seconds off the CR, and even though second and third runners Taisei Masuda and Hiroto Yoshioka underperformed enough for Nagano to fall to 7th, a new 23:32 CR by Saku Chosei's Tetsu Sasaki on the 8.5 km Fifth Stage put them back out in front and far enough away that nobody could catch them. Anchor Taishi Ito brought Nagano home for the win in 2:16:55, 5 seconds under the overall CR for the 48.0 km race that Nagano set last year.
Chiba spent the first half of the race back in the middle of the field of 47 teams from each of Japan's prefectures, but a CR-breaking run from high schooler Rui Suzuki on the Fifth Stage and a great anchor run from Takuya Hanyu were enough to take them to 2nd in 2:17:39, Chiba's best-ever performance. Both Suzuki and Nagano's Sasaki are headed to Waseda University, a big boost to its roster which will suffer a bit from Ito's graduation.
Fukushima was strong over the first half of the race and overtook Nagano for the lead on the Third and Fourth Stages. They fell to 6th after that, but a great anchor run from Waseda's Tomonori Yamaguchi put them back into 3rd in 2:18:02. Hiroshima, Saitama, Saga, Shizuoka and Kyoto rounded out the 8-deep podium, Kyoto beating Osaka for the last spot by just 3 seconds.
Other standout individual performances included an 8:21 by junior high school 3000 m record holder Kain Inagaki on the 3.0 km Second Stage even though he fell at the exchange zone while receiving the tasuki and missed the CR by 7 seconds, 10000 m NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri back on top with a 23:36 win on the 8.5 km Third Stage for Gunma, and CR near-misses on the Fourth and Seventh Stages by Fukuoka's Shu Morimoto and hometown team Hiroshima's Shunya Kikuchi.
Between the National Men's Ekiden and the Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden, championship ekiden season is technically at its end. But does it ever really end? On Feb. 16 is the National University Mixed-Gender Ekiden in Osaka, and a month later the new Expo Ekiden also in Osaka, an attempt to have the top teams from the New Year and Hakone Ekidens face off. It's possible to have too much of a good thing, but we'll see if it takes off and what kind of participation it gets from the really top-tier people who would already be well into prep for track season or just off the big domestic marathons.
30th National Men's Ekiden
Hiroshima, 19 Jan. 2025
47 teams, 7 stages, 48.0 km
Top Team Results
1. Nagano - 2:16:55 - CR
2. Chiba - 2:17:39
3. Fukushima - 2:18:02
4. Hiroshima - 2:18:12
5. Saitama - 2:18:20
6. Saga - 2:18:25
7. Fukuoka - 2:18:57
8. Kyoto - 2:18:58
9. Osaka - 2:19:01
10. Hyogo - 2:19:05
Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (7.0 km, high school)
1. Yamato Hamaguchi (Nagano) - 19:33
2. Ryo Omi (Miyagi) - 19:36
3. Yota Mashiko (Fukushima) - 19:47
4. Haruki Niizuma (Hyogo) - 19:54
5. Kota Tamura (Osaka) - 19:54
Second Stage (3.0 km, junior high school)
1. Kain Inagaki (Kanagawa) - 8:21
2. Genta Tsuge (Shizuoka) - 8:36
3. Hirotaka Wakata (Tochigi) - 8:37
3. Ryo Uematsu (Saitama) - 8:37
3. Toa Fujita (Aichi) - 8:37
Third Stage (8.5 km, univ/corporate)
1. Kazuya Shiojiri (Gunma) - 23:36
2. Masaya Tsurukawa (Kumamoto) - 23:37
3. Yuichiro Ueno (Saga) - 23:41
4. Kazura Munakata (Aomori) - 23:46
4. Akihito Kawata (Saitama) - 23:46
4. Hiroki Wakabayashi (Wakayama) - 23:46
7. Hiromichi Nonaka (Shizuoka) - 23:48
8. Kaisei Okada (Osaka) - 23:49
9. Sota Fukutani (Tokyo) - 23:52
9. Ayumu Yamamoto (Fukuoka) - 23:52
9. Jinichiro Kameda (Miyazaki) - 23:52
Fourth Stage (5.0 km, high school)
1. Shu Morimoto (Fukuoka) - 14:05
2. Ryo Kurimura (Fukushima) - 14:10
3. Koki Ishikawka (Nagano) - 14:12
4. Yuta Kinugawa (Hyogo) - 14:21
4. Ao Ishikawa (Saga) - 14:21
Fifth Stage (8.5 km, high school)
1. Tetsu Sasaki (Nagano) - 23:32 - CR
2. Rui Suzuki (Chiba) - 23:46 (CR)
3. Yuto Miyake (Kyoto) - 24:29
4. Kotaro Fujioka (Hyogo) - 24:33
5. Taiyo Iwasa (Saga) - 24:36
Sixth Stage (3.0 km, junior high school)
1. Keito Ogasawara (Saitama) - 8:36
2. Haruma Kawaji (Tochigi) - 8:37
3. Yuki Nakazawa (Nagano) - 8:39
4. Naoki Seri (Fukuoka) - 8:42
5. Osuke Misawa (Shizuoka) - 8:48
Seventh Stage (13.0 km, univ/corporate)
1. Shunya Kikuchi (Hiroshima) - 36:58
2. Takuya Hanyu (Chiba) - 37:00
3. Asahi Kuroda (Okayama) - 37:09
4. Tomonori Yamaguchi (Fukushima) - 37:15
5. Tsuyoshi Bando (Osaka) - 37:19
6. Kohei Mukai (Nagasaki) - 37:24
7. Yudai Shimazu (Tokyo) - 37:25
8. Kiyoshi Koga (Saga) - 37:27
9. Kanta Shimizu (Gunma) - 37:29
10. Kento Nishi (Kyoto) - 37:34
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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