Hakone Ekiden on Deck - Entry Lists

by Brett Larner

Twelve hours to go until the start of the 2010 Hakone Ekiden. The race begins at 8:00 a.m. Japan time on Jan. 2 with a one-hour preview at 7:00 a.m. Click here to watch Nihon TV's broadcast online via Keyhole TV. Click here for live English commentary on JRNLive. Click here for JRN's 2010 Hakone preview.

Preliminary entry lists are available here. Final entry lists for Day One will be announced during the preview show at 7:00 a.m. Noteworthy details of the preliminary lists:

• Toyo: Hiroyuki Uno - 1st Stage, Ryuji Kashiwabara - 5th Stage
• Waseda: Yo Yazawa - 1st Stage, Takahiro Ozaki - 2nd Stage, Yuki Yagi - 5th Stage, Sota Kato - 6th Stage, Hiroyuki Sasaki - reserve, Shota Hiraga - reserve
• Yamanashi Gakuin: Cosmas Ondiba - 3rd Stage
• Nihon: Daniel Gitau - 2nd Stage
• Meiji: Takuya Ishikawa - 2nd Stage, Kodai Matsumoto - reserve
• Komazawa: Sota Hoshi - 1st Stage, Tsuyoshi Ugachi - 2nd Stage, Takuya Fukatsu - 5th Stage, Wataru Ueno - 8th Stage, Yusuke Takabayashi - 9th Stage
• Tokyo Nogyo: Kazuki Tomaru - 2nd Stage
• Jobu: Yasuo Ishida - 2nd Stage, Mao Fukuyama - 5th Stage, Yusuke Hasegawa - reserve
• Nittai: Kazuya Deguchi - 1st Stage, Takahiro Mori - 2nd Stage, Takuya Noguchi - reserve
• Josai: Yuta Takahashi - 2nd Stage
• Tokai: Akinobu Murasawa - 2nd Stage, Tsubasa Hayakawa - 3rd Stage
• Kanto Select Team: Takuji Morimoto - 1st Stage, Masaki Ito - 2nd Stage

There's some movement toward putting strong guys on 5th to counteract Kashiwabara, as in Waseda's Yagi and Komazawa's Fukatsu, but it looks like pre-race reports of Nihon's Gitau and Tokai's Murasawa taking the 5th were not accurate.

The 2nd Stage will still be the focus for the big guns: Waseda's Ozaki, Komazawa's Ugachi, ToNo's Tomaru, Jobu's Ishida, Nittai's Mori, Josai's Takahashi, Kanto's Ito, and of course Murasawa.

Komazawa putting Hoshi on 1st - a sign that he's still hurting like at Nationals and that they expect Ugachi on 2nd to make up the difference?

Yamanashi Gakuin putting Kenyan Ondiba on 3rd is a curious move.

Waseda's first-years Sasaki and Hiraga on reserve status is a bluff. Watanabe does it with some of his best guys every year and will put them in on race morning, either tomorrow or on Day Two. Probably the same story for Jobu's Hasegawa, the fastest Japanese guy in the field, and Nittai's Noguchi. Regrettably Meiji ace Matsumoto has been dealing with compartment syndrome and is very unlikely to run, meaning Meiji is out as a contender.

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
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