by Brett Larner
In what was really and truly probably the last noteworthy ekiden of the season, course records fell Feb. 17 in two of the three divisions at the 37th Chunichi Hamanako Isshu Ekiden at Lake Hamana in Shizuoka. Despite the absence of aces Martin Mathathi and Yusei Nakao, the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC team had no trouble winning the 53.5 km men's race, clocking 2:42:49 to runner-up Teikyo University's 2:44:15. Suzuki men took three of the five stages, with 2010-11 steeplechase national champion Tsuyoshi Takeda setting a course record of 29:12 for the 9.6 km Fourth Stage.
In the six-stage, 42.0 km high school boys' race, 2012 National High School Ekiden runner-up Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. ran 2:07:38 to set a new overall course record thanks to four of its runners scoring stage bests. Fourth man Yuki Hirota, running the same 9.6 km course as Takeda in the men's race, set a new high school division record of 28:44, almost 30 seconds better than Takeda's mark. T…
In what was really and truly probably the last noteworthy ekiden of the season, course records fell Feb. 17 in two of the three divisions at the 37th Chunichi Hamanako Isshu Ekiden at Lake Hamana in Shizuoka. Despite the absence of aces Martin Mathathi and Yusei Nakao, the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC team had no trouble winning the 53.5 km men's race, clocking 2:42:49 to runner-up Teikyo University's 2:44:15. Suzuki men took three of the five stages, with 2010-11 steeplechase national champion Tsuyoshi Takeda setting a course record of 29:12 for the 9.6 km Fourth Stage.
In the six-stage, 42.0 km high school boys' race, 2012 National High School Ekiden runner-up Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. ran 2:07:38 to set a new overall course record thanks to four of its runners scoring stage bests. Fourth man Yuki Hirota, running the same 9.6 km course as Takeda in the men's race, set a new high school division record of 28:44, almost 30 seconds better than Takeda's mark. T…