2021 Hakone Ekiden MVP Vincent Yegon led Tokyo Kokusai University to the win at the Kanto Region qualifier for November's National University Men's Ekiden Championships . Twenty schools competed Saturday at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium for the seven spots available at Nationals, every school fielding two runners in each of four heats of 10000 m and scored on the total time of its eight runners. TKU got off to a slow start, outside the top ten after the first race, up to 7th after the second heat with a 9-second margin over Surugadai University , and hanging on to 7th after the third race but seeing its margin drop to just over 2 seconds ahead of Nittai University . Nittai's Tamaki Fujimoto took the fourth heat out, but after just 800 m Yegon took over, leading almost the entire rest of the way on sub-28 pace. That burned off most of the competition up front, and with 1500 m to go it was down to Yegon, Hakone rival Philip Mulwa (Soka Univ.) and Josep...
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