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Meijo University Wins Second-Straight National University Women's Ekiden

After an unexpected breakthrough last year to win its first national title in 12 years, Meijo University took full advantage of its new recruits to win the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the Japanese University Women's Ekiden Championships, for the second year in a row Sunday in Sendai.

First-year Yuna Wada, who set up Nozomi Tanaka for the gold medal in this year's U20 World Championships 3000 m, took it out hard for Meijo, winning the 6.4 km First Stage by two seconds over Naruha Sato of last year's 3rd-placer Ritsumeikan University. After a rocky start 2017 runner-up Daito Bunka University's Yuka Suzuki made up a 42-second deficit on the 5.6 km Second Stage, turning it into a 15-second lead over Ritsumeikan with Meijo dropping to 3rd.

Star Meijo first-year Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu got it back under control, just missing the CR on the 6.8 km Third Stage as she put Meijo back into the lad for good. DBU, Ritsumeikan and darkhorse TokyoNogyo University battled to close the gap, …
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Venice, Frankfurt and the National University Women's Championships - Weekend Road Racing Preview

Three main races make up the lion's share of this road racing action, two abroad and one on home ground.

Bouncing back from a bad run three weeks ago at the Chicago Marathon, 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will make his Italian debut at the Huawei Venice Marathon with support from JRN.

Since Chicago Kawauchi has raced twice, a 1:05:18 the weekend after Chicago at the Namerikawa Half Marathon and a 1:00:48 for 2nd at last weekend's Takashimadaira 20 km.The Takashimadaira time equates to a 1:04:08 half marathon, and given that rate rate of improvement over Namerikawa and his 14:47 closing split he is optimistic about Venice.

"If the pack gets into a good rhythm early on then I think I can run in 2:10 to 2:12 range," he said. Most years that would put him in contention for the win in Venice, and with his 2018 best standing at 2:11:46 and the fastest time ever by a Japanese man on Italian soil at 2:12:51 he's got good secondary a…
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Tokyo Nogyo University Outruns Typhoon to Win Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden

With skies hanging heavy in the hours before the impending arrival of Typhoon #24, Tokyo Nogyo University won the 24th Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden to lead the qualifiers for the Oct. 28 Morinomiyako Ekiden university women's national championships.

Always in the top two, Tokyo Nogyo didn't take a definitive lead until the 3.9 Fourth Stage, when 1st-year Yuki Shibahara scored the team's only stage win of the day to overtake 2017 Morinomiyako runner-up Daito Bunka University. From there to the finish it opened a 1:16 lead over Daito Bunka, easily winning in 1:39:05. Daito Bunka's lead over 2017 winner Toyo University was almost as big, finishing in 1:40:21 to Toyo's 1:41:17.

Including teams which earned seeded spots at last year's national championships the top eight teams qualified for this year's nationals. 7th-placer Takushoku University, whose men's team progressively features Ethiopian Workneh Derese as captain, qualified for National…
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Meijo University Women Win First National Title Since 2005

3rd last year, Meijo University returned to the top with its first national title since 2005 at today's National University Women's Ekiden Championships in Sendai.

Missing its star pair Anju Takamizawa and Riho Takamizawa (no relation), defending champion Matsuyama University was never in the race, 25th of 26 teams on the 6.4 km First Stage and eventually working its way up to 13th. 6 seconds out of 1st, Meijo took over the lead on the 5.6 km Second Stage and held it almost the entire rest of the way.

With a record of ten wins and four 2nd-place finishes in the last 14 years, last year's runner-up Ritsumeikan University went into 1st on the 4.8 km Fourth Stage thanks to a stage best run by Ayano Tanaka, setting up a duel between course record holder Kotona Ota (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and #1-ranked first-year Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) on the day's longest stage, the 9.2 km Fifth Stage. Kaseda caught Ota within the first 3 km, but while it looked like the younger Kaseda mig…
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Matsuyama Looks to Repeat - National University Women's Ekiden Preview

The university men's ekiden season is already well underway, but for women the first of the season's national-level university ekidens takes place this Sunday with Sendai's Morinomiyako Ekiden, the National University Women's Ekiden Championships.

Starting in 2003 Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University became an almost unstoppable force, winning ten national titles and three 2nd-place finishes in thirteen years including five-straight from 2011 to 2015. Last year they were knocked back to 2nd by first-time national champion Matsuyama University but came back with a season-ending win over Matsuyama and 3rd-placer Meijo University at the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden.

All three schools are back and feature as the three favorites, Matsuyama led by fourth-year Anju Takamizawa, a 2016 Rio Olympian in the 3000 m steeplechase, and 2005 national champion Meijo led by first-year Rika Kaseda, runner-up in the 5000 m at September's National University Track and Field Championships…
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Olympian Takamizawa to Lead Matsuyama University in National University Women's Ekiden Title Defense

On Oct. 11 the Inter-University Athletics Union of Japan (IUAU) released the entry lists for the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the National University Women's Ekiden Championships to be held Oct. 29 in Sendai. A Rio de Janeiro Olympian in the 3000 m steeplechase, Anju Takamizawa will return to lead Matsuyama University in its shot at a second-straight national title.
Other noteworthy names on the entry lists include National University Track and Field Championships 5000 m winner Maho Shimizu (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), National University Individual Track and Field Championships 5000 m winner Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) and World University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuki Munehisa (Tokyo Nogyo University).
source article: 
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20171011/ath17101119210001-n1.html
translated by Brett Larner
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Kansai Gaikokugo University Women Qualify for National University Women's Ekiden for Fourth Time

In just its fifth season, the Kansai Gaikokugo University(Kansai Gaidai) women's ekiden team has qualified for the National University Women's Ekiden Championships for the fourth year in a row. Held in Sendai on Oct. 29, the race will be broadcast live on Nippon TV starting at 12:10 p.m. on the 29th. 26 teams from across the country, including 8 teams seeded from last year, 17 regional qualifiers and a Tohoku Region University Select Team will compete over the 6 stage, 38 km course from Koshin Gomu Athlete Park Sendai to Sendai City Hall Civic Plaza.

The Kansai Gaidai women qualified for this year's Nationals by finishing 6th in 1:43:17 at the Sept. 23 Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden. With 3 of the 6 places available to Kansai Region schools taken by top-placing teams from last year who were seeded for this year's Nationals, Kansai Gaidai finished 3rd among the programs that secured the 3 remaining qualifying spots. The Kansai Gaidai women's ekiden tea…
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Rio Olympian Anju Takamizawa Leads Matsuyama University to First National Title

by Brett Larner

Rio de Janeiro Olympics 3000 m steeplechase runner Anju Takamizawa, the first Japanese university woman to ever make an Olympic team in a distance event, led Matsuyama University to take down five-time defending national champion Ritsumeikan University and become the first school from the Chugoku-Shikoku Region to ever win the National University Women's Ekiden Championships title Sunday in Sendai.

【杜の都駅伝】
松山大学初優勝です！ pic.twitter.com/ftXf43wke1 — 日本学生陸上競技連合 (@iuauj) October 30, 2016
3rd last year, Matsuyama lined up against Ritsumeikan, Kanto Region champ and 2015 runner-up Daito Bunka University and 23 other teams at the Morinomiyako Ekiden, as Nationals are popularly called.  Ritsumeikan got off to a rocky start, its lead runner Nanako Kanno eight seconds behind 1500 m national university champion Natsu Hashimoto (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) in 6th, but for Matsuyama and Daito Bunka the First Stage was a disaster. Matsuyama senior Ayumi Uehara, one of its three best runn…
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Breaking the Ritsumeikan Dynasty - National University Women's Ekiden Preview

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…
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Ritsumeikan Set to Make it Five-Straight - National University Women's Ekiden Championships Preview

by Brett Larner



With the men's Big Three University Ekiden season well underway, Japan's university women kick off their own Big Three this Sunday at Sendai's Morinomiyako Ekiden, the National University Women's Ekiden Championships. With six stages totalling 38.0 km, a longest stage of 9.2 km, 26 teams from across the country and a live nationwide broadcast on NTV Morinomiyako is similar in scale to the men's season-opening Izumo Ekiden.

Defending champion Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto comes in ranked #1 again with four-straight national titles and nine wins in the last twelve years.  With the #1 and #3 ranked runners in the field, third-year Natsuki Omori and second-year Kotona Ota, and the fastest top-six 5000 m average, 15:45.73, there is almost no chance Ritsumeikan will lose.  The last team to beat them, 2009-2010 national champion and crosstown Kyoto rival Bukkyo University, has long since faded from glory with the departure of head coach Kenichi Morikawa …
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University Ekiden Season Kicks Off

by Brett Larner

October marks the start of the best part of the Japanese year, university ekiden season.  The key races among these road relays are big, high-level and massively popular with live nationwide broadcasts, and now that university women have finally achieved parity with the men at three major ekidens it's better than ever.  A quick guide to the season's main races, with detailed previews to follow.

Technically the women's season began last weekend with the regional qualifiers for the first of their big three races, the Oct. 25 Morinomiyako Ekiden in Sendai.  Serving as the National University Women's Ekiden Championships, Morinomiyako has been dominated by Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University for years and there is little sign of that changing.  The second main race on the women's calendar is its newest addition, the Nov. 29 Nikko Irohazaka Women's Ekiden.  Still finding its feet, so far Irohazaka has proved popular with its unusual one-way uphill cou…
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Meio University Scores First-Ever National University Women's Ekiden Qualifying Spot

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/fukuoka/news/20150621-OYTNT50203.html

translated by Brett Larner

The Kyushu Region Qualifier for the 33rd National University Women's Ekiden took place June 21 at Heiwadai Field in Chuo-ku, Fukuoka.  Appearing for the first time in its short 21-year existence, Okinawa's Meio University scored a place at the Oct. 25 Nationals in Sendai, its six athletes' combined 5000 m times in the qualifying meet totalling 2:01:56.

First among them was senior Ayumi Shirakawa, 22, who commented, "This is the first time I've ever made it to the National level.  Even if I can move us up one position I'll be happy."

Among other Kyushu Region schools, Fukuoka University and Kagoshima's Kanoya Taiiku University both hold seeded places from their performances at the 2014 National University Women's Ekiden.
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Unstoppable Ritsumeikan University Wins Fourth-Straight National University Women's Ekiden Title - Weekend Road Review

by Brett Larner

With ekiden season in full swing it was the busiest weekend so far this fall as high schools across Japan competed in regional qualifiers for December's National High School Ekiden.  At the university level, the dynastic Ritsumeikan University women led start to finish to win their fourth-straight National University Women's Ekiden, bringing the school's total record to nine national titles.  With the last team to have beaten them, crosstown Kyoto rival Bukkyo University, having faded away following the departure of head coach Kenichi Morikawa for the Yamada Denki corporate women's team and Kanto Region rivals Tsukuba University likewise a ghost of their former selves with the decline of twin stars Haruka and Moe Kyuma, it fell to last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University to give Ritsumeikan a go for the title.

DBU's leading runner Rina Koeda was only a second behind Ritsumeikan's Natsuki Omori to get things off to a promising start, but …
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Ritsumeikan University Takes Eighth National University Women's Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner

Defending national champion Ritsumeikan University added an eighth title to its legacy Oct. 27 in Sendai, winning the 31st National University Women's Ekiden Championships after leading start to finish.  First Stage runner Natsuki Omori got things off by winning the 6.4 km opening leg by a second over Ayumi Uehara of Matsuyama University despite a fall midway through the stage, and from there the Ritsumeikan women never looked back.  Ritsumeikan runners won five of the day's six stages, only Juntendo University's Nanaka Izawa spoiling their day with a win on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage.

With the Kansai region typically seen as the center of collegiate women's distance running, four of this year's top ten schools were from the Kanto region, better known for the strength of its men's programs.  Daito Bunka University was the top Kanto school, 2nd overall on the strength of quality runs from its identical twins Eri and Mari Tayama. Coached by Keiichi …
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Takechi, Kyuma Twins Lead Bukkyo University and Tsukuba University to Regional Ekiden Wins

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20120930-OHT1T00285.htm
http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0005414888.shtml

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The university women's ekiden season kicked off Sept. 29 with the Kansai Region (Kobe/Kyoto/Osaka area) qualifier for the Oct. 28 National University Women's Ekiden Championships in Sendai.  22 schools ran in the six-stage, 30 km Kansai qualifier in Kobe's Shiawase no Mura, with defending champion Bukkyo University taking its second-straight and fourth-overall win in 1:37:54.  Last year's national champion Ritsumeikan University finished 4th in Kansai.  Along with Bukkyo and Ritsumeikan, five other schools from the Kansai Region made the cut for Nationals.

Having run on the Shiawase no Mura course since her days at Tomogaoka H.S., Bukkyo's Shiho Takechi had the fastest time on the anchor stage for the second year in a row.  Takechi ran 47 seconds faster than the next-fastest woman on the anchor stage, making a …
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Nishihara and Yoshimoto Lead Bukkyo to National University Women's Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner

Led by stage record performances by its pair of aces, 2010 national university 5000 m Kasumi Nishihara and national 10000 m collegiate record holder Hikari Yoshimoto, Bukkyo University won the 2010 National University Women's Ekiden on Oct. 24, covering the six-stage, 38.6 km distance in a new course record time of 2:02:44. Perpetual rivals Ritsumeikan University were second in a strong 2:04:20 after trailing Bukkyo from the start.

Bukkyo's Chinami Mori started things off with a 14-second lead over Ritsumeikan on the 5.8 km First Stage, and from there Bukkyo's next three runners progressively extended the lead to 1:18 thanks in large part to Nishihara's 28:56 stage record on the 9.1 km Third Stage. Ritsumeikan's Akane Yabushita managed to make a dent with a 12:38 stage record on the 4.0 km Fifth Stage, but anchor Yoshimoto delivered the win in style as she outran Ritsumeikan anchor Machiko Iwakawa by 50 seconds, running a new stage record of 25:14 for…
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Watch the National University Women's Ekiden Live Online

The 2010 National University Women's Ekiden Championships, a.k.a. the Morinomiyako Ekiden, takes place this Sunday, Oct. 24. The race will be broadcast live from 11:45 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. on Nihon TV. Overseas viewers can watch live online via Keyhole TV by clicking here.

In the ekiden, look for Bukkyo University to take down perpetual rivals Ritsumeikan University thanks to its pair of stars, national university 5000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara and 10000 m national collegiate record holder Hikari Yoshimoto. Junior Risa Takenaka will try to lead Ritsumeikan to an upset win.
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Bukkyo Breaks Ritsumeikan For First National Title

by Brett Larner

It was a familiar story: clocking an unprecedented fourth-straight new stage record at the major national university women's championship Morinomiyako Ekiden, ace senior Kazue Kojima led Ritsumeikan University, except for 2005 when it was 2nd the national champion every year since 2003, to break its own course record by nearly two minutes. But there was something strange. TV cameras showed Ritsumeikan's women crying and devastated at the finish. What had gone wrong? The answer: cross-town rival Bukkyo University had beaten them by another margin of nearly two minutes to take its first-ever national title.

Bukkyo's performance was just a few degrees off perfection. First Stage runner Mai Ishibashi took a slow first half before taking off in the second half to win the leg by 2 seconds over Ritsumeikan's Hanae Tanaka. From there on every Bukkyo runner just went out hell-bent at 100% from the start, recklessly running stage-record pace and daring Ritsumeikan …
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Morinomiyako Ekiden Preview: Kojima and Nishihara - Watch Online

by Brett Larner

While the popularity and prestige of the Hakone Ekiden has concentrated Japan's university men's distance talent within the Tokyo-centered Kanto Region, women's university runners are more geographically dispersed. If there is one stronghold it must be the Kansai Region around Kyoto and Osaka, home of the dominant Ritsumeikan University women's team and their cross-town rivals Bukkyo University. The two schools meet again this weekend at the six-stage, 38.6 km Morinomiyako Ekiden, the first of the season's two national university women's ekidens.

Ritsumeikan is the three-time defending Morinomiyako champion and has qualified more than any other school in the field, running in the last twenty of Morinomiyako's twenty seven editions. Ritsumeikan's winning streak exactly coincides with the career of its ace runner Kazue Kojima. Kojima is the best university runner of her generation, a multiple national champion who has never lost an ekiden st…
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Ritsumeikan Takes Third Straight National Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner

After a slow start which saw two-time defending champion Ritsumeikan University in 7th at the end of the first stage of the 38.6 km, six-stage National University Women's Ekiden Championships, also known as the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the school moved up through the field through the following three stages to take first the lead and then its third consecutive national title and fifth national win in six years. Buoyed by a stellar stage-record performance by third-year star Kazue Kojima on the third leg, Ritsumeikan runners clocked stage records on the fourth and fifth legs as well and won in 2:06:53, just off the course record which Ritsumeikan set last year. Rivals Bukkyo University once again had to settle for 2nd, finishing 1:15 behind the winner in 2:08:08. 2005 winner Meijo University rounded out the podium positions with a 2:08:47 finish in 3rd.

Ritsumeikan's win essentially amounted to a simple display of power. Despite five of the six members of last year…
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