A day after the qualifying race for January's Hakone Ekiden , the corporate leagues held their qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden national championship. 30 teams raced the 6-stage, 42.195 km Princess Ekiden to try for the 16 spots left alongside the 8 auto-qualifiers from last year's Queens Ekiden. After a slow start Uniqlo moved up to take the win thanks to a stage win from Paris Olympian Yume Goto on the 3.6 km Second Stage, a good run from 4th runner Yumi Yoshikawa to move into 3rd, and a big run from new recruit Dolphine Omare to run down Edion and Otsuka Seiyaku for 1st. 33 seconds up on Edion at the start of the 6.695 km anchor stage, Uniqlo had a scare from Olympian Wakana Kabasawa who started for Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo 50 seconds back in 5th. Kabasawa turned in a stage-winning run and got to within 5 seconds of Uniqlo anchor Ayaka Kato with 1 km to go, but Kato heard her coming and rallied to hang on for the win in 2:19:16. Mitsui Sumitomo was nex
Amos Kurgat and Loice Chemnung soloed new course records to win Sunday's Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon , with Paralympians Tomoki Suzuki and Wakako Tsuchida winning the wheelchair races. A late addition to the field, Kurgat took off and immediately left it behind, going through 10 km in 27:48 and never looking back. Although he slowed on the uphill back up to Tokyo's National Stadium in the last 5 km, Kurgat was never in danger and won easily in a course record 59:52, 18 seconds under the old record set by Vincent Kipkemoi in the race's 1st edition two years ago. Bedan Karoki was the first runner to break from the chase pack, taking 2nd in 1:00:38. The next four runners came into the stadium together, with last year's Ageo City Half winner Paul Kuira having the kick to take 3rd in 1:00:49. The top Japanese man at February's Tokyo Marathon in 2:06:31, Yusuke Nishiyama was the first Japanese man across the line here too, just off his PB in 1:01:13 for 8th. Chemnu