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Morinomiyako Ekiden Preview


The university men's ekiden circuit is 100% dominated by schools from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, but for women it's more geographically diverse, the last two big dynasty schools being the Tokai Region's Meijo University and the Kansai Region's Ritsumeikan University with Kanto's Daito Bunka University a perpetual close 2nd at both of the main races, Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden and December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden.

Last year Kanto's Josai University scored upset wins at both Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji, to make it a rare Kanto sweep. At Morinomiyako DBU was 2nd yet again with Meijo 3rd and Tohoku region local Tohoku Fukushi University a surprise 4th to hold 2024 winner and top Kansai team Ritsumeikan back to 5th. At Mt. Fuji Tohoku Fukushi almost pulled off a shock win on the anchor stage before Josai came back on the final climb, bumping DBU down to 3rd and Meijo to 4th, with Ritsumeikan 5th there too. Fresh names at the top of the list and 4 regions in the top 5 gave both races a kind of interest almost totally absent from the more popular men's ekiden circuit.

This season's National University Track and Field Championships didn't give any hint of domination by a single program. Josai 2nd-year Kyo Honma took the 5000 m with Ritsumeikan 4th-year Sayuki Ota 2nd, and Meijo duo 1st-year Airi Mashiba 3rd and 4th-year Ayaka Segi 5th. DBU 4th-year Sarah Wanjiru won the 10000 m in a 31:23.69 meet record, Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura over a minute back in 2nd. DBU 4th-year Mana Aiba was the only runner from the main schools to make the top 5 in the 1500 m at 5th, with Meijo 3rd-year Nozomi Kondo taking the 3000 mSC and Josai 2nd-year Yuna Onishi 2nd.

Based on that, Meijo looks to be in a pretty good position with strong new 1st-years and good performances by some of its more experienced runners. But that's balanced by the graduation of its 3 best performers at last year's Morinomiyako, Moeka Okawara, Nanaka Yonezawa and Asuka Ishimatsu.

Josai also had a couple of good track placings at Nationals, and while the graduation of last year's Morinomiyako Second Stage CR breaker Koharu Kaneko stings a bit its winning team last year was heavy on 1st-years who should be able to cover. But the Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden on Oct. 3 wasn't encouraging, 10th through the first 2 stages, Josai worked its way up only as far as 3rd before 4th-year anchor Ichigo Ishikawa was a DNF.

Meanwhile DBU broke its own Kanto CR from a year earlier, winning by almost 3 minutes in 1:49:51 with new CR from 4th-years Akie Hirao and Mariya Noda, and both Wanjiru and 3rd-year anchor Ayari Shiozaki winning their stages. With Hirao, Noda and Wanjiru all graduating, if DBU is ever going to win it's got to be this year.

Already guaranteed a spot at Morinomiyako, Tohoku Fukushi sat its regional qualifier out. Ritsumeikan was already too but ran the Kansai qualifier, where it was only 4th. But with only one member of last year's Morinomiyako lineup, Chiseno Ikeda who was only 14th on the anchor stage, running the Kansai race it looked like Ritsumeikan was using it mostly to pick members to round out this year's Morinomiyako squad. 2nd-years Haon Shibazaki and Sakura Yumiki looked the most likely to make the starting team, Shibazaki taking 2nd on the First Stage and Yumiki breaking the CR on the Fifth Stage.

Nippon TV has the Morinomiyako broadcast starting at 11:45 a.m. Sunday. If you've got a VPN then you should be good to go with the official streaming on TVer.

Morinomiyako Ekiden Entry List

44th National University Women's Ekiden
Sendai, Miyagi, 25 October 2026
27 teams, 6 stages, 38.0 km

1. Josai University (Kanto Region)
2. Daito Bunka University (Kanto Region)
3. Meijo University (Tokai Region)
4. Tohoku Fukushi University (Tohoku Region)
5. Ritsumeikan University (Kansai Region)
6. Osaka Gakuin University (Kansai Region)
7. Tsukuba University (Kanto Region)
8. Fukuoka University (Kyushu Region)
9. Hokkaido University (Hokkaido Region)
10. Tohoku University (Tohoku Region)
11. Juntendo University (Kanto Region)
12. Nittai University (Kanto Region)
13. Teikyo Kagaku University (Kanto Region)
14. Hakuoh University (Kanto Region)
15. Toyo University (Kanto Region)
16. Tamagawa University (Kanto Region)
17. Niigata Iryo Fukushi University (Hokushinetsu Region)
18. Nihon Fukushi University (Tokai Region)
19. Kansai University (Kansai Region)
20. Osaka Geijitsu University (Kansai Region)
21. Bukkyo University (Kansai Region)
22. Kantaiheiyo University (Chugoku-Shikoku Region)
23. Kyushu University (Kyushu Region)
24. Kyoto Sangyo University (Kansai Region)
25. Tokyo Nogyo University (Kanto Region)
26. Takushoku University (Kanto Region)
27. Tohoku Region Select Team (Tohoku Region)

© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Anonymous said…
Daito Bunka Uni must be overwhelming favourites to win this year based on their latest team performance. Unlike like last year, there don't appear to be any injury concerns and their squad is in top form. I have high hopes for Juntendo Uni. They are aiming for a top 5 finish here and top 3 at the Mt Fuji Ekiden. I think it is very possible given the amount of first year talent including Miori Kida, at their disposal and of course, they have their star 4th year member, Airi Tajima! It's difficult to see Josai Uni being able to replicate their miraculous win with their weakened team due to graduating members and injuries too. I'd like to see them finish top 5 or better. I hope Meijo Uni can bounce back and contest for the win to make it interesting. I fear if Wanjiru receives the sash ahead of the other teams it will be less a question of will DBU win but by how much. After last year's 2 Ekidens I thought Tohoku Fukushi Uni might have a solid chance this year but I'm not sure how their team is performing. It would be fantastic if they sprung a surprise like last year. I have my VPN sorted. I will definitely be watching this one. Will DBU finally break their bridesmaid's jinx? I think so.

By the way, there is an excellent article concerning Juntendo University's Airi Tajima, Miori Kida and their head coach, Akira Nakamura that is worth a read if you haven't read it already. Here is the link if interested:

https://goodhealth.juntendo.ac.jp/sports/000419.html
October 23, 2026 at 5:27 PM
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