Tokyo Kokusai University Qualifies for Its First-Ever National University Ekiden With Kanto Region Win
Tokyo Kokusai University made history Sunday night at Kanagawa’s Sagamihara Gion Stadium, winning the Kanto Region Qualifier for November’s National University Ekiden to make the national championship ekiden for the first time. One of the wave of new programs to break onto the Hakone scene in recent years, won by a margin of just 13 seconds for the combined times of its eight runners in four heats of 10000 m, downing major established schools like Meiji University , Waseda University and Nittai University to take the top spot. A big part of that was first-year Vincent Yegon , who won the most competitive heat in 28:04.56 to give Tokyo Kokusai an edge on cumulative time. But with a margin of more than 2:40 over the final qualifying team, 5th-place Chuo Gakuin University , the rest of the team pulled its weight and would have almost certainly qualified even without the boost from Yegon. Chuo University was the unlucky 6th-placer at less than 18 seconds behind Chuo Gakuin, abou...