by Brett Larner
Ekiden season rolls on this Sunday with the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the 34th edition of the National University Women's Ekiden. 25 university teams and one regional select team will race over 38.0 km in six stages. Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University has won the national title ten times in the last thirteen years and is in the middle of the longest streak in the championships' history, with five straight wins behind them and looking to add a sixth. The last team to beat them, Kyoto rivals Bukkyo University, have completely disappeared since the departure of head coach Kenichi Morikawa to take over at the Yamada Denki women's corporate team, while the only other team to beat Ritsumeikan since 2003, 2005 champ Meijo University of Aichi, was 5th last year almost four minutes behind Ritsumeikan.
Ritsumeikan won September's Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden, but its margin over runner-up Kyoto Sangyo University was only 24 seconds over 30 km. At th…
Ekiden season rolls on this Sunday with the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the 34th edition of the National University Women's Ekiden. 25 university teams and one regional select team will race over 38.0 km in six stages. Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University has won the national title ten times in the last thirteen years and is in the middle of the longest streak in the championships' history, with five straight wins behind them and looking to add a sixth. The last team to beat them, Kyoto rivals Bukkyo University, have completely disappeared since the departure of head coach Kenichi Morikawa to take over at the Yamada Denki women's corporate team, while the only other team to beat Ritsumeikan since 2003, 2005 champ Meijo University of Aichi, was 5th last year almost four minutes behind Ritsumeikan.
Ritsumeikan won September's Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden, but its margin over runner-up Kyoto Sangyo University was only 24 seconds over 30 km. At th…