A longtime member of the Kyudenko corporate team, rebranded as Kraftia after his departure, 10 mile world best holder Benard Kibet Koech has been banned 4 years for biological passport irregularities. All his results dating back to 26 June, 2024 have been disqualified, a period including his runs at the 3 Nov., 2024 Kyushu Corporate Ekiden and the 1 Jan., 2025 New Year Ekiden. As a result, Kyudenko's results in those races will almost certainly be disqualified in the same way that the Aisan Kogyo team lost 4 years of New Year Ekiden results after Rodgers Kwemoi was suspended. Soka University also lost its best-ever 2nd-place finish at the 2023 Izumo Ekiden after team member Leakey Kamina tested positive for nandrolone in-competition at the 2023 National University Track and Field Championships, and the Universal Entertainment women's corporate team lost its 2017 national title after Moeno Nakamura tested positive in-competition at that race.
When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...
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