High Schools Thrash Corporate League Ekiden Competition

by Brett Larner

Championship ekiden season has come and gone, but Sunday saw high-level action at two popular and long-running ekidens at opposite ends of Japan. In western Japan, course record-setting 2015 National High School Ekiden champion Sera H.S. of Hiroshima definitively took the win at the 79th Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden, beating Mazda, Chugoku Denryoku, JFE Steel, Chudenko and other corporate team competition with ease. Sera third-year Paul Kamais opened a lead of over two minutes with a course record 42:04 for the 15.1 km First Stage, and from there Sera never lost the top position. Mazda came the closest, closing to within 3 seconds by the end of the Fourth Stage, but a Fifth Stage win by Sera's Taiju Nakashima put them back out front with a margin that Sera's remaining two runners held onto until the end. Sera covered the seven-stage, 84.4 km course in 4:07:29, the best-ever by a high school team, with Mazda ending up nearly two minutes back in 4:09:24. Chugoku Denryoku, missing star Takehiro Deki who is in training for the Tokyo Marathon, was 3rd in 4:10:17.

Northwest of Tokyo in Saitama, the local Saitama Sakae H.S. boys ran away from the Police Department corporate team for the win at the 62nd Okumusashi Ekiden. A pair of stage records from Saitama Sakae's Ryoji Tatezawa and Hidekazu Tsujikata put the school almost two minutes ahead of the Police after four of the race's six stages, but despite a strong finish from the Police Saitama Sakae held on to a lead of almost a minute to take the win in 1:56:16 for 38.5 km. Running for his employer, the Saitama Prefectural Government, marathoner Yuki Kawauchi was 2nd behind Tatezawa on the hilly 5.4 km Second Stage, running 16:45 to Tatezawa's 16:17 record.

79th Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden
Ube, Yamaguchi, 1/31/16
47 teams, 7 stages, 84.4 km

Top Team Results
1. Sera H.S. - 4:07:29
2. Mazda - 4:09:24
3. Chugoku Denryoku - 4:10:17
4. JFE Steel - 4:12:11
5. Chudenko - 4:14:26

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (15.1 km) - Paul Kamais (Sera H.S.) - 42:04 - CR
Second Stage (11.3 km) - Charles Ndirangu (JFE Steel) - 31:21 - CR
Third Stage (11.9 km) - Teressa Nyakora (Mazda) - 34:48
Fourth Stage (10.4 km) - Takumi Kiyotani (Chugoku Denryoku) - 31:04
Fifth Stage (8.7 km) - Taiju Nakashima (Sera H.S.) - 24:56
Sixth Stage (15.9 km) - Joel Mwaura (Kurashiki H.S.) - 46:01
Seventh Stage (11.1 km) - Yuji Osuda (Mazda H.S.) - 32:21

62nd Okumusashi Ekiden
Hanno, Saitama, 1/31/16
201 teams, 6 stages, 38.5 km

Top Team Performances
1. Saitama Sakae H.S. - 1:56:16
2. Police Department - 1:57:12
3. Kanto Gakuin Univ. A - 1:58:09
4. Tokyo Kokusai Univ. B - 1:58:19
5. Shindengen Kogyo - 1:58:30

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (9.8 km) - Takashi Hirose (Kanto Gakuin Univ. A) - 29:33
Second Stage (5.4 km) - Ryota Tatezawa (Saitama Sakae H.S. A) - 16:17 - CR
Third Stage (4.3 km) - Takahisa Mitsui (Saitama Sakae H.S.) - 12:45
Fourth Stage (4.5 km) - Hidekazu Tsujikata (Saitama Sakae H.S.) - 12:50 - CR
Fifth Stage (5.2 km) - Shota Umemoto (Tokyo Kokusai Univ. A) - 15:07
Sixth Stage (9.3 km) - Takato Suzuki (Ryutsu Keizai Prep Kashiwa H.S.) - 27:56 - CR

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

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