William Malel Drives Honda to Second-Straight Towada Hachimantai Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner

Despite thunderstorms bringing heavy rain that shut down highways and roads in the area, the Honda corporate team came through with its second-straight win today at the 67th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden in Akita. The rain may actually have helped the situation by alleviating Towada's normal summer heat as times were fast across the board compared to other years. None was faster than Honda's William Malel (Kenya), who covered the 13.4 km, 180 m downhill Second Stage in 35:27 and took an incredible 45 seconds off the stage record set just last year. Malel started the Second Stage in 7th, but by the time he handed off to Honda's third man Hiroaki Sano he had a lead of 33 seconds and from there Honda never looked back.

Sano, the top Japanese man at last year's Chicago Marathon, extended the lead to 1:29, running 46:23 for the 16.2 km Third Stage. Honda's Keita Baba ran 49:17 for the 16.4 km Fourth Stage, its fastest mark by over a minute, to put the team 2:40 ahead. Anchor Shota Hattori, a winner of the Hakone Ekiden's uphill Fifth Stage, made his pro ekiden debut on Towada's likewise uphill Fifth Stage, but although he faltered with only the tenth-fastest time on the stage Honda's lead was enough to guarantee the win.

Honda totalled 3:45:10 for the complete 73.7 km, 1:28 ahead of runner-up Yakult. First Stage leader Komori Corporation, missing its star member and 2014 Commonwealth Games 1500 m silver medalist Ronald Kwemoi (Kenya), was close behind in 3rd in 3:46:54. Top ten team times were two minutes faster than last year on average, with four of the five stages seeing faster winning times. All told the weather proved a lucky break after speculation that the race would be cancelled due to flooding.

67th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden
Kazuno, Akita, 8/7/14
5 stages, 73.7 km, 29 teams
click here for complete results

Overall Team Results
1. Honda - 3:45:10
2. Yakult A - 3:46:38
3. Komori Corporation - 3:46:54
4. Yachiyo Kogyo - 3:47:33
5. Yakult B - 3:48:26
6. JR Higashi Nihon - 3:49:12
7. East Japan Corporate Select Team - 3:50:05
8. Kokushikan University A - 3:52:55
9. Omokawa Lumber - 3:53:03
10. Tokyo Police Department - 3:53:13

First Stage - 13.6 km
1. Hirotoshi Sato (Komori Corp.) - 41:00
2. Yoshihiro Nishizawa (Tamagawa Club) - 41:12
3. Shota Yamazaki (Yakult B) - 41:12
4. Kenta Kitazawa (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 41:15
5. Sho Matsumoto (Arata Project) - 41:20

Second Stage - 13.4 km, ~180 m descent
1. William Malel (Kenya/Honda) - 35:27 - CR
2. Kassa Mekashaw (Ethiopia/Yachiyo Kogyo) - 36:21
3. Joseph Onsarigo (Kenya/Nanyo City Hall) - 36:24
4. Naohiro Domoto (JR Higashi Nihon) - 36:25
5. Norio Kamijo (Omokawa Lumber) - 37:13

Third Stage - 16.2 km
1. Bernard Kimanyi (Kenya/Yakult A) - 45:00
2. Cyrus Gichobi Njui (Kenya/Arata Project) - 45:40
3. David Njuguna (Kenya/Yakult B) - 46:06
4. Hiroaki Sano (Honda) - 46:23
5. Dishon Karukuwa Maina (Kenya/Omokawa Lumber) - 46:38

Fourth Stage - 16.4 km
1. Keita Baba (Honda) - 49:17
2. Koji Gokaya (JR Higashi Nihon) - 50:23
3. Masahiro Kawaguchi (Yakult A) - 50:28
3. Kazuyoshi Shimozato (Komori Corp.) - 50:28
5. Norikazu Kato (Yakult B) - 50:32

Fifth Stage -14.1 km, ~680 m ascent
1. Tomohiro Tanigawa (Tamagawa Club) - 50:18
2. Tatsunori Hamasaki (Komori Corp.) - 50:37
3. Tsukasa Koyama (East Japan Corp. Select Team) - 50:56
4. Akihiro Hirai (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 51:10
5. Soji Ikeda (Yakult A) - 51:15

(c) 2014 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

japan running news

Search This Blog