Yamanashi Gakuin University Tops Kanto Region Qualifier for November's National University Men's Ekiden
by Brett Larner
November's National University Men's Ekiden is the second of the Big Three University Ekidens, midway in distance and prestige between October's season-opening Izumo Ekiden and January's legendary Hakone Ekiden. Schools that finished outside the seeded bracket at last year's Nationals have to requalify this month, with the toughest of the qualifying races, the Kanto Region qualifier, happening yesterday in Urawa, Saitama. Twenty Kanto Region schools fielded eight runners, two from each school in four heats of 10000 m on the track. The total times of all eight runners are combined to determine the team standings, with the fastest nine schools going on to the national race come November.
Despite not winning a single heat, Yamanashi Gakuin University took the top spot in 4:03:52.82 with runner-up placings in heats 2, 3 and 4 from Junya Uemura, Kenta Ueda and Dominic Nyairo. Nihon University was next in 4:05:20.92 thanks in part to Patrick Wambui wi…
November's National University Men's Ekiden is the second of the Big Three University Ekidens, midway in distance and prestige between October's season-opening Izumo Ekiden and January's legendary Hakone Ekiden. Schools that finished outside the seeded bracket at last year's Nationals have to requalify this month, with the toughest of the qualifying races, the Kanto Region qualifier, happening yesterday in Urawa, Saitama. Twenty Kanto Region schools fielded eight runners, two from each school in four heats of 10000 m on the track. The total times of all eight runners are combined to determine the team standings, with the fastest nine schools going on to the national race come November.
Despite not winning a single heat, Yamanashi Gakuin University took the top spot in 4:03:52.82 with runner-up placings in heats 2, 3 and 4 from Junya Uemura, Kenta Ueda and Dominic Nyairo. Nihon University was next in 4:05:20.92 thanks in part to Patrick Wambui wi…