Skip to main content

Toyota Wins New Expo Ekiden


A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka's hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday's ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University, didn't field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota, who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48.

Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University briefly sat in 2nd before Matsueda ran down 6th runner Yuta Asano, finishing 3rd overall as the top collegiate team in 2:34:18. Teikyo University had an excellent team performance to take 4th overall in 2:35:18. New Year Ekiden 4th-placer GMO holding off Komazawa by 20 seconds for 5th in 2:35:30, its second runner Yuto Imae the only one to break the Toyota/Fujitsu stranglehold on individual stage wins.

Aoyama Gakuin was another 8 seconds behind Komazawa in 7th, with head coach and major event backer Susumu Hara immediately calling for the race to become a regular fixture of the season instead of a one-off. The format and concept were definitely interesting and entertaining, but the major problem is that there just isn't a good time for it to be held. Mid-March puts it right after the end of the domestic marathon season and right ahead of track season, eliminating a lot of the top talent at both ends of the spectrum. There are already too many races in February, and the only feasible option in January, the last weekend, conflicts with the Osaka Women's Marathon and Osaka Half Marathon and comes just a week before the major half marathon of the season, Marugame. Whatever its merits, it's hard to say what the new race's future holds.

1st ACN Expo Ekiden

Osaka, 16 Mar. 2025
16 teams, 7 stages, 54.5 km

Team Results
1. Toyota - 2:32:48
2. Fujitsu - 2:34:02
3. Koku Gakuin University - 2:34:18
4. Teikyo University - 2:35:18
5. GMO - 2:35:30
6. Komazawa University - 2:35:50
7. Aoyama Gakuin University - 2:35:58
8. Logisteed - 2:36:04
9. Soka University - 2:38:00
OP - Corporate Select Team - 2:38:31
10. Yasukawa Denki - 2:39:36
11. Josai University - 2:39:45
12. Sumitomo Denko - 2:40:13
OP - Kansai Region University Select Team - 2:41:08
13. Waseda University - 2:41:32
14. Rikkyo University - 2:42:29

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (8.9 km) - Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) - 24:58
Second Stage (5.1 km) - Yuto Imae (GMO) - 14:19
Third Stage (12.5 km) - Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 34:06
Fourth Stage (5.4 km) - Daniel Kosen (Fujitsu) - 14:39
Fifth Stage (10.1 km) - Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 28:34
Sixth Stage (4.7 km) - Hideyuki Tanaka (Toyota) - 13:00
Seventh Stage (7.8 km) - Shunta Uchida (Toyota) - 22:02

© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree with the fact that while an interesting race and concept, there's just no room in the calendar to make it a really viable and top level competitive race.

Furthermore, even if somehow they found a way to do this during the ekiden season, there's the "risk" teams/public starts seeing it as competition to Hakone/New Year's Ekiden or comparing teams from both a bit too much.
After all if you really want it to be a real top competition you'd have to have corporate and college at full strenght and I think that would create a bit too much conflict.
Let Hakone be Hakone, let corporate be corporate and don't cause too many interferences in my opinion.

Still a fun experiment to watch once in a while perhaps.

Most-Read This Week

Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...