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Kyoto Sets Course Record in Interprefectural Women's Ekiden, Noguchi Runs Anchor Leg Stage Best, and a Preview of the Interprefectural Men's Ekiden

by Brett Larner

The Kyoto Prefectural team took the lead on the 2nd stage of the 26th All-Japan Interprefectural Ekiden, progressively widening its lead to take its 4th straight victory and break Kumamoto's 11 year old course record with a finish time of 2:14:58. The Interprefectural Women's Ekiden is held in Kyoto on the same course as the All-Japan High School Boys' Ekiden, covering the full marathon distance of 42.195 km in 9 stages. The event features teams made up of top runners from each of Japan's 47 prefectures and has an unusual format in that teams are made up of a mix junior high school, high school and university students running together with professionals and Olympians over appropriately-scaled stages. This year's race took place in cold, windy, intermittently rainy conditions. Mizuki Noguchi had a good start to the year by running a stage-best 31:53 on the 10 km anchor stage over an assortment of other stars including Yukiko Akaba to bring the Mie Prefectural team into the top 10.

For detailed results please consult Ken Nakamura's writeup for the IAAF or the Yomiuri Online's report. The official website linked above has many pictures from the race.

Osaka World Championships marathon bronze medalist Reiko Tosa was also at the ekiden serving as an announcer. Her commentary at several points suggested that she has still not recovered from the health problems she experienced during the fall season.

The men's edition of the Interprefectural Ekiden takes place Jan. 20 in Hiroshima. Like the women's race, the men's Interprefectural Ekiden includes a mix of students and professionals from throughout Japan running for their home prefectural teams. Runners scheduled to appear include top high school aces Yuki Yagi and Takuya Nakayama (son of legendary marathoner Takeyuki Nakayama), university stars Masato Kihara, Yuki Sato and Yuichiro Ueno, along with 5 members of Komazawa's winning Hakone Ekiden team and 32 other Hakone runners, and jitsugyodan runners Yu Mitsuya, Kazuhiro Maeda and Tsuyoshi Ogata, all of whom ran in last summer's Osaka World Championships. Additional information may be found in the Chugoku Shimbun.

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
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