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Favorites Aoyama Gakuin University and Tokai University made it a two-team race at the 50th edition of the National University Men's Ekiden in Sunday in Nagoya, with Tokai breaking away in the early going only to be run down near the race's end.

With a new course configuration that shortened the early stages and lengthened the seventh of its eight stages, Nationals this year put an emphasis on 10000 m speed early and half marathon stamina late. AGU's Hakone downhill specialist Yuji Onoda looked like he was going to set the example for his team with a hard surge 8 km into the 9.5 km First Stage, but he and the other Hakone Ekiden stars from the Kanto Region got a surprise when Yuki Ishii of the Kansai Region's Kwansei Gakuin University dropped them all to hand off in 1st.

Teikyo University was unexpectedly next at the exchange 3 seconds back, with AGU a step behind and Tokai another 2 seconds back. Other pre-race favorites Komazawa University and Toyo University got off…

With both American and Japanese university students well into their fall seasons, two major events took place Saturday. Near Madison, Wisconsin, the D1 Pre-Nationals cross-country meet and in Tachikawa, Tokyo the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier half marathon. At Pre-Nats men ran 8 km on a looping XC course with a maximum elevation difference of around 30 m. The field was split into two main races, Cardinal and White, with a total of 69 teams, and an additional Grey race handling some overflow. Teams ran up to seven members, with the top five scoring on cumulative placing. A total of 474 athletes finished the two main races, with five DNF.

At the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier, known as the Yosenkai, the distance was lengthened from 20 km to the half marathon distance this year, on a paved net-uphill course with a maximum elevation difference of about 20 m, most of that in the hilly final 8 km through Showa Kinen Park. 39 second-tier teams fielded up to twelve runners, with the top ten scoring on cu…

The Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai is the qualifying race for Japan's most prestigious road race, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden. University men's teams in the Tokyo area that didn't make the top ten at Hakone the year before square off in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with teams of up to twelve. The top ten score, their cumulative times determining the team's placing with the top eleven teams advancing and high-placing individuals from schools that don't make the cut rounded up to form a select team.

The Yosenkai has long been the world's #1 20 km road race by a wide margin, with winning times among the fastest in the world for the distance and the same kind of incredible depth seen at November's Ageo City Half Marathon and March's National University Men's Half Marathon. In light of changes in the IAAF's ranking system and the level of performance at the Yosenkai, this year organizers took the historic step of changing it from its traditional distance to …

Jakarta Asian Games men's 3000 m steeplechase bronze medalist, national champion and Rio Olympian Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.) ended his university track career with one of the better of his many great performances, breaking the National University Track and Field Championships meet record set by Moroccan Aziz Driouch in 1999 by 2 seconds to win in 8:31.98. As at the Asian Games he frontran the entire race, but where he was outkicked in Jakarta over the last lap this time he opened a lead of 13 seconds over runner-up Taisei Ogino (Kanagawa Univ.).

The home to Shiojiri's teammate in Rio and women's meet record holder Anju Takamizawa, Matsuyama University extended its domination of Japanese collegiate women's steeplechase, taking the top three spots in the final. 3rd-year Kako Okado took the national title in 10:02.04 just over 5 seconds off Takamizawa's record, with 1st year duo Manami Nishiyama and Moka Ouchi going 2-3.

Apart from the steeple, the women's…

Bronze was the color of Japan's luck on the third day of athletics competition at the Jakarta Asian Games, with three Japanese athletes medaling in jumps and hurdles. Takatoshi Abe was a favorite to medal in the men's 400 m hurdles, no match for championships record-breaking Qatari Abderrahman Samba but running a strong 2nd throughout the race. Coming into the home straight Abe had a sizable lead over Taiwan's Chen Chieh and Indian Dharun Ayyasamy, but as he came off the bend he began to tie up. Ayyasamy saw his chance and kicked hard, catching Abe just before the line to take silver and knock Abe back to bronze.

One of Japan's strongest medal contenders, Naoto Tobe had something of an off day in the men's high jump, struggling to clear 2.24 m and tying for bronze with Syrian Majd Eddin Ghzal while winner Yu Wang of China went on to clear 2.30 m. Takashi Eto cleared 2.24 m on his final attempt to move into 6th but passed on the subsequent heights with an apparent …

The 2018 Jakarta Asian Games are underway, with athletics competition set to kick off Saturday morning with the men's marathon. 23 women and 35 men will represent Japan in what may be the best approximation in the next two years of the conditions they're likely to face at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

It's a national team with strong contenders in certain events and gaping holes elsewhere. The women's racewalk squad is very thin at only one entrant and no women are competing in any jumps, while no Japanese men are entered in the 5000 m or 10000 m. All the development in men's distance seems to be channelled into the marathon, where Japan may have one of its best gold medal chances in 2:06:54 man Hiroto Inoue. No Japanese man has won gold in the marathon at the Asian Games since Takayuki Nakayama set the still-standing Games record of 2:08:21 at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. Given the heat and humidity of Jakarta Inoue is unlikely to touch that kind of time, but his chanc…

The Kanto Region Qualifier for this fall's 50th National University Men's Ekiden happened Saturday at Saitama's Urawa Komaba Stadium. The meet is made up of four heats of 10000 m with two runners from each competing school in each heat, the aggregate times of its eight runners determining a school's total time. The eight fastest programs go on to join other regional qualifiers and the six seeded teams already on the bill for November's Nationals. Considering that it's been since 2009 since a school from outside Kanto made the top ten at Nationals and 1999 since one made the seeded top six, what happens at the Kanto Region Qualifier has a lot of weight on what happens come ekiden season.

10th at Nationals last year, Hosei University's fortunes continued to climb as it took the top spot in 4:06:08.63 by less than 12 seconds over last year's 11-th placer Koku Gakuin University. Hosei 4th-year Yuta Bando led the way with a win in Heat Three in 30:40.75, si…

Masateru Yugami (Toyota) and Taio Kanai (Fukui Pref. Sports Assoc.) wrapped up the last day of the 2018 Japanese National Track and Field Championships in style, delivering national records in the men's discus throw and men's 110 m hurdles.

Coming into Nationals with a best of only 59.30 m, Yugami threw PBs on five-straight throws, breaking the national record set last year by rival Yuji Tsutsumi (Alsok) on his last three. By the time the dust settled he held a new record of 62.16 m, an improvement of almost a minute and a half over Tsutsumi's record. "I'm happy to get this," he said afterward, "but I know other athletes are coming up too and I hope that we can take it further together."

With a 0.7 m/s tailwind, the #4-ranked Kanai won the 110 mH final in 13.36, a PB by 0.17 and bettering both the year-old meet record and 2004-era national record. 3000 mSC winner Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.) came up short of the national record, but his 8:29.14 …

Japan's biggest university meet kicked off Thursday at a new home in the wildlands of suburban Kanagawa. Day 1 of the 97th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships started off hot, humid and sunny, shifting toward cool and windy as the afternoon wore on. Not ideal for the day's main final, the women's and men's 10000 m.

The women's 10000 m was probably the best race of the day. #1-ranked Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.), the only woman in the race with a PB under 32:30, predictably took control early, challenged mid-race by the talented Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) but effortlessly dropping her after 7000 m. An unexpected challenge to Sekiya's second-straight Kanto 10000 m title came from unknown mid-33 runner Yukina Ueda (Tsukuba Univ.). As the other competition dropped away Ueda stayed locked to Sekiya looking fresh and ready to go. But in the back straight on the final lap Sekiya inched away, opening a 5-second lead to win in 33:29.53. Ueda shav…

Looking to improve on last year's 4th-place finish, Juntendo University held a press conference at its main campus in Inzai, Chiba on Dec. 13 ahead of the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden. Set to run the 23.2 km Second Stage for the third time, star 3rd-year and Rio Olympian Kazuya Shiojiri sent a warning to his rivals at other schools, telling reporters, "I'm being tasked with beating the best from all the other schools, so my personal goal is to win the stage."

At the Nov. 25 Hachioji Long Distance meet Shiojiri ran the 4th-fastest time ever by a university runner, 27:47.87, but that has had no impact on head coach Shunsuke Nagato's plans. "Even if we fall behind on the First Stage, I know that he's there so it won't be anything to get worried about," said Nagato, showing the complete trust which he places in Shiojiri.

Of last year's Second Stage winner, 2017 National University Half Marathon champion Kengo Suzuki of Kanagawa University, Shiojiri s…

Entry lists are out for Japan's biggest and best road race, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden. 21 university teams from around the Tokyo area will field ten runners from the sixteen on their entry list, each runner taking on roughly a half marathon length over the ten-stage race.

2017 Izumo Ekiden winner Tokai University is the class of the field, one of only five teams to enter all ten of its best athletes and the only one with ten-runner averages under 14 minutes for 5000 m, under 29 for 10000 m and 1:03 for the half marathon. At all three distances its averages are slightly better than Aoyama Gakuin University's were last year when AGU won its third-straight Hakone title, and no other school even comes closer over the most relevant distance, the half marathon. It has never won Hakone, but this year it's Tokai's race to lose.

AGU has been hit by injury troubles this year, losing in both Izumo and the National University Ekiden and missing several key members from its Hakon…

Credited as being only 17 years old, Ethiopian Yeneblo Biyazen (Yachiyo Kogyo) made a big splash in his 10000 m debut, running an under-18 world-leading 27:32.51 to lead 12 men under 28 minutes at Hosei University's Hachioji Long Distance Meet. Biyazen and compatriot teammate Abiyot Abinet ran together throughout the race before Biyazen dropped an incredible kick over the last lap. Abinet couldn't match it, running a PB 27:37.62 to outlast Kenyan Muthoni Muiru (Soka Univ.) for 2nd. Muiru's 27:38.05 PB run ranked him at all-time #3 among sutdent athletes at Japanese universities.

With an overall slow opening pace,  half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda), decked out in Nike's Vaporfly 4%, did his share of the heavy lifting up front but was never on for a shot at the 27:29.69 national record set in Hachioji two years ago. Riding the ebbs and flows of the race before losing touch with the lead trio over the last lap he snipped one second off his PB to t…

Following October's season-opening Izumo Ekiden and world record-breaking Yosenkai 20 km, the university men's ekiden season continues Sunday with the National University Men's Ekiden Championships. 12 top regional teams from across the country will face off with the 15 best in the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region on an 8-stage course from Nagoya to Mie totalling 106.8 km. TV Asahi will broadcast the complete race starting at 7:00 local time on Sunday. International viewers can try mov3.co for streaming, with other options to be found here.

At Izumo the up-and-coming Tokai University squad took down defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University, head coach Hayashi Morozumi's cross-country-based methodology having overtaken the innovative systematic approach of AGU's Susumu Hara that had made AGU into the dominant team of the era. AGU is likewise the defending champion at Nationals, but the longer average stage lengths at Nationals play to Tokai's strengths and it will…

Kanagawa's Tokai University outran two-time defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University to win the 2017 Izumo Ekiden, its first win at one of the Big Three university men's ekidens under head coach Hayashi Morozumi and Tokai's first Izumo title since 2007.

Formerly head coach at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. where he produced the fastest-ever all-Japanese high school team and standout Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) on a cross-country based training regimen, since taking over at Tokai in 2011 Morozumi has set about systematically developing the Tokai program into one with the greatest depth in Japanese university running. On paper AGU had a slight advantage over Tokai over the first half of Izumo's six stages, but with Tokai's second half runners, including its top two men Shota Onizuka and Hayato Seki, ranked at the top of their stages AGU needed a decent lead by halfway to stand a chance.

From the start it wasn't to be. In hot and sunny conditions Tokai&#…