Sera Girls Win First-Ever National High School Ekiden Championships Title

by Brett Larner
video highlights courtesy of broadcaster NHK

The Sera H.S. girls won their first-ever National High School Ekiden Championships Sunday in Kyoto thanks to a solid team performance and a stunning run from 2nd-year anchor Yuka Mukai.

Ranked #1, defending champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. was handicapped from the start by the loss of its #2 member Kanami Sagayama to injury and was far behind on the 6.0 km First Stage. In Sagayama's absence Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. first-year Nozomi Tanaka, daughter of sub-2:30 amateur marathoner Chihiro Tanaka, led almost the entire way from her opening 3:10 km to the final stretch where she was outkicked by Sera's Shinobu Koyoshigawa. The two handed off almost simultaneously and over the 4.0975 km Second Stage little changed in their teams' relative positions, Nishiwaki Kogyo handing off to its third runner one second ahead of Sera. Behind them Tokiwa H.S. and Osaka Kunei drew closer, Osaka Kunei thanks to its debuting Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu, the younger sister of captain Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu. Further back, Kenyan Helen Ekarare of Sendai Ikuei H.S. took 8 seconds off the stage record with a new mark of 12:27.

The elder Takamatsu overtook Tokiwa on the 3.0 km Third Stage, cutting the gap to Nishiwaki Kogyo and Sera down to 10 seconds. On the 3.0 km Fourth Stage Sera's Kotone Asada ran into trouble, losing touch with Nishiwaki Kogyo's Yume Goto and overtaken by both Tokiwa and Osaka Kunei. With a 15:31.92 best for 5000 m that put her at #10 among all Japanese women this year Sera anchor Mukai had said pre-race that she was confident of being able to make up a 30-second deficit. When Asada handed off to her Mukai was 32 seconds behind Nishiwaki Kogyo anchor Yuina Onishi with two teams in between them.

Fluid and strong, Mukai was on the job. In less than 2 km she went by Osaka Kunei's Rino Maeda. Ahead Tokiwa's Yuki Kometani overtook Onishi for the lead, and just moments later Mukai did the same to move into 2nd, Kometani just ahead. With just over a km to go Mukai went by Kometani and there was nothing left between her and the finish line. Mukai broke the tape in 1:07:37 to give Sera its first national title, just 4 seconds outside the all-time top ten. Her time of 15:26 beat her track PB by 5 seconds and, while not a stage record, was the fastest time ever by a Japanese-born runner on the anchor stage. With the Sera boys all but guaranteed to win their race the girls' win meant a double was in the air for Hiroshima's strongest high school.

Tokiwa's Kometani held on after getting dropped, taking 2nd in 1:07:46. Defending champions Osaka Kunei were a respectable 3rd in 1:08:10, 33 seconds out of the win. Would Sagayama have made that much of a difference? We'll never know. Suma Gakuen H.S. anchor Mai Ota turned in one of the best performances of the day, running down longtime leader Nishiwaki Kogyo to take 4th by 9 seconds in 1:08:42.

National High School Girls Ekiden Championships
Kyoto, 12/20/15
59 teams, 5 stages, 21.0975 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results
1. Sera H.S. - 1:07:37
2. Tokiwa H.S. - 1:07:46
3. Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. - 1:08:10
4. Suma Gakuen H.S. - 1:08:42
5. Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. - 1:08:51
6. Kojokan H.S. - 1:09:14
7. Yamada H.S. - 1:09:16
8. Kitakyushu Municipal H.S. - 1:09:24
9. Funabashi Municipal H.S. 1:09:31
10. Toyokawa H.S. 1:09:31

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage - 6.0 km
1. Shinobu Koyoshigawa (Sera H.S) - 19:20
2. Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 19:20
3. Yuka Sarumida (Toyokawa H.S.) - 19:30

Second Stage - 4.0975 km
1. Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 12:27 - CR
2. Wakana Kabasawa (Tokiwa H.S.) - 12:55
3. Fukiko Ando (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 12:57

Third Stage - 3.0 km
1. Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) - 9:33
2. Natsuki Yamamoto (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 9:51
2. Asuka Nagao (Sera H.S.) - 9:51

Fourth Stage - 3.0 km
1. Yume Goto (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 9:21
2. Mana Arai (Tokiwa H.S.) - 9:22
3. Kanako Hayakawa (Yamanashi Gakuin Prep H.S.) - 9:23

Fifth Stage - 5.0 km
1. Yuka Mukai (Sera H.S.) - 15:26 - fastest-ever by Japanese runner
2. Yuki Kometani (Tokiwa H.S.) - 15:57
3. Monica Margaret (Aomori Yamada H.S.) - 15:58

© 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Takeshi Soh Reflects on 54 Years in the Sport on His Retirement as Asahi Kasei Head Coach

After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...

Japan Names Marathon Teams for Tokyo World Championships

On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi , 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's. On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo . The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama , who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Roa...

Evaluating the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV Awards

The JAAF held the award ceremony for its Japan Marathon Championship Series IV last night in Tokyo, the whole thing streamed live on Youtube. The two-year series, in this case running from April, 2023 to March, 2025, scores marathoners on time and place in domestic races and high-level international races, with athletes' two best performances combining to give them their series rankings. Series winners score guaranteed places on the 2025 Tokyo World Championships team , with the top 8 women and men earning prize money: 1st: ¥6,000,000 (~$40,000 USD) 2nd: ¥3,000,000 (~$20,000) 3rd: ¥1,000,000 (~$6,700) 4th: ¥800,000 (~$5,300) 5th: ¥700,000 (~$4,700) 6th: ¥500,000 (~$3,300) 7th: ¥300,000 (~$2,000) 8th: ¥200,000 (~$1,300) Points for time are scored according to World Athletics scoring tables, with placing points based on races' designated level. Given the JAAF's financial interests in the big domestic races and the income stream from their TV broadcasts, the scoring system ...

japan running news

Search This Blog