Skip to main content

Ritsumeikan Women Hang On to National Ekiden Dynasty By a Thread

by Brett Larner

Bukkyo University anchor Kasumi Nishihara came within 3 seconds of breaking titan Ritsumeikan University's domination of the national ekiden circuit at the 6th All-Japan University Women's Invitational Ekiden Championship in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, delivering a new stage record for the anchor leg but coming up just short of catching Ritsumeikan's star first-year Michi Numata, the 2008 National University 10000 m champion.

While both the men's and women's university ekiden circuits hold their national championships at the end of October or beginning of November, the true peak of the men's season comes at the Hakone Ekiden on Jan. 2-3. The All-Japan University Women's Invitational Ekiden, a six-stage, 30.67 event a short distance northeast of Tokyo, began five years ago as a way of giving university women's distance running the year's-end holiday season national coverage accorded to men.

Kyoto-based Ritsumeikan has dominated the event since its inception, winning all five editions along with the last three titles at October's National University Women's Ekiden. At this year's Invitational Ekiden the school fielded a team made up of five first-years and superstar third-year Kazue Kojima, Japan's #1-ranked university woman distance runner. There was little doubt of the outcome, but perfect conditions yielded an unexpected crop of records.

After Ritsumeikan's 1st and 2nd stage runners Risa Takenaka and Naomi Komai handed off a step behind 1st place, Kojima delivered a performance which exceeded even her own expectations. In her third time running the 5.5 km 3rd stage, Kojima ran 17:07, breaking her own stage record by a stunning 36 seconds to put Ritsumeikan into a 24-second lead. At the end of her third year of university Kojima remains undefeated, with stage best times in every ekiden she has run.

4th stage runner Hanae Tanaka widened Ritsumeikan's lead to 29 seconds, but 5th leg runner Machiko Iwakawa struggled in the final kilometer of her 6.0 km stage, losing ground to rival Bukkyo. Bukkyo's 5th leg runner, first-year Hikari Yoshimoto, began in third a short distance behind Meijo University's powerful fourth-year Eri Sato, quickly make up the distance, and the pair charged ahead after Iwakawa running dangerously fast. Sato initially dropped behind, then retook Yoshimoto and moved ahead, only to be dropped again as the Bukkyo first-year surged ahead.

Ritsumeikan's 10000 m national university champion first-year Michi Numata began the anchor stage with a 20-second lead and ran without problem, looking strong and composed throughout the 7.67 km stage, but behind her Bukkyo's anchor, second-year Kasumi Nishihara, was on the attack. After finishing 2nd as anchor last year, Nishihara was desperate to catch Numata and break Ritsumeikan's streak. Bit by bit she narrowed the gap, moving within less than 10 seconds of Numata with two kilometers to go. Numata responded, accelerating just enough to keep the gap constant. The two runners entered the track for a final lap 7 seconds apart. Nishihara had the stronger last kick, cutting the distance to the lead step by step but running out of room and finishing 3 seconds behind, collapsing to the track in devastation. Both runners broke Ritsumeikan's course record by nearly a minute, with 3rd place Meijo tying the old record of 1:39:33.

Kojima will return next year for her final season, and Ritsumeikan's stellar crew of first-years will be around for years to come to continue the school's dynasty. It will be up to Bukkyo, Meijo and other top schools to step up their own performances to meet Ritsumeikan's level.

2008 All-Japan University Women's Invitational Ekiden
Stage Best Performances
1st Stage (5.0 km) - Megumi Ito (1st yr., Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 16:06
2nd Stage (3.0 km) - Yurina Urakawa (1st yr., Meijo Univ.) - 9:25 - new stage record
3rd Stage (5.5 km) - Kazue Kojima (3rd yr., Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 17:07 - new stage record
4th Stage (3.5 km) - Hanae Tanaka (1st yr., Ritsumeikan Univ.) and Chizuru Ideta (4th yr., Bukkyo Univ.) - 11:12 - new stage record
5th Stage (6.0 km) - Hikari Yoshimoto (1st yr., Bukkyo Univ.) - 19:38
6th Stage (7.67 km) - Kasumi Nishihara (2nd yr., Bukkyo Univ.) - 24:31 - new stage record

Top Team Results
1. Ritsumeikan Univ. (Kyoto) - 1:38:33 - new course record
2. Bukkyo Univ. (Kyoto) - 1:38:36 - new course record
3. Meijo Univ. (Nagoya) - 1:39:33 - tied course record
4. Nihon Univ. (Tokyo) - 1:41:53
5. Josai Kokusai Univ. (Chiba) - 1:42:12
6. Tokyo Nogyo Univ. (Tokyo) - 1:42:17
7. Josai Univ. (Saitama) - 1:42:27
8. Tamagawa Univ. (Tokyo) - 1:42:29
9. Nittai Univ. (Kanagawa) - 1:43:01
10. Kansai Select Team (Kansai) - 1:43:17

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters