by Brett Larner
Along with marathons and other road races, this busy weekend included two significant ekidens and three large track time trial meets.
At the Nov. 19 Biwako University Ekiden, Western Japan's answer to January's Hakone Ekiden, defending champion Kyoto Sangyo University braved heavy rain and wind to take its second-straight Biwako title. After a slow 8th-place start Kyoto Sangyo worked its way up through the field and covered the eight-stage, 83.6 km course in 4:16:17. Daiichi Kogyo University was 2nd in 4:18:09 thanks in large part to an impressive 31:57 record for the 11.0 km Third Stage by its Kenyan ace Kiragu Njuguna, a full 43 seconds under the old record. Njuguna put Daiichi Kogyo in the lead by more than a minute over early leader Ritsumeikan University, and the team maintained the lead all the way until the 7th stage when Daiichi Kogyo was overtaken by Kyoto Sangyo's stage-winning Kazuki Noda. Ritsumeikan anchor Yusuke Kubo did what he could to c…
Along with marathons and other road races, this busy weekend included two significant ekidens and three large track time trial meets.
At the Nov. 19 Biwako University Ekiden, Western Japan's answer to January's Hakone Ekiden, defending champion Kyoto Sangyo University braved heavy rain and wind to take its second-straight Biwako title. After a slow 8th-place start Kyoto Sangyo worked its way up through the field and covered the eight-stage, 83.6 km course in 4:16:17. Daiichi Kogyo University was 2nd in 4:18:09 thanks in large part to an impressive 31:57 record for the 11.0 km Third Stage by its Kenyan ace Kiragu Njuguna, a full 43 seconds under the old record. Njuguna put Daiichi Kogyo in the lead by more than a minute over early leader Ritsumeikan University, and the team maintained the lead all the way until the 7th stage when Daiichi Kogyo was overtaken by Kyoto Sangyo's stage-winning Kazuki Noda. Ritsumeikan anchor Yusuke Kubo did what he could to c…