Skip to main content

Ueda Over Kamino at Akasaka 5-Chome Mini Marathon

by Brett Larner


Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage star Daichi Kamino made his pro debut for the Konica Minolta team in surprising style, running Saturday night as part of the 50th edition of the All-Star Kanshasai variety show's twice-annual Akasaka 5-Chome Mini Marathon.  Broadcast live during the show, the race covers four laps of a twisting 900 m course with a steep downhill start, two 180-degree turns, a 200 m-long uphill with a nearly 10% grade, and a section through the TBS studios in front of the hundred or so comedians and TV personalities assembled for the variety show.  Each edition features a well-known pro runner racing several dozen other comedians and celebrities, each carefully handicapped for the staggered start to make the outcome as close as possible.  Past editions have featured Olympic and World Championships medalists including Joan Benoit Samuelson, Masako Chiba, Meseret Defar, Vanderlei de Lima, Bedan Karoki, Frank Shorter, Lidia Simon, Erick Wainaina and Valentina Yegorova.  This year's guest star was Kamino, who graduated last month from Aoyama Gakuin University where he played a key role in AGU's two-straight Hakone wins by dominating the hills of its legendary Fifth Stage.

Before Kamino took to the roads four of his former AGU teammates, Tadashi Isshiki, Yuki Nakamura, Yuta Shimoda and Kazuki Tamura, ran a special Mini Ekiden against eight more comedians and entertainers, the comedians each running one lap of a shortened 350 m version of the course with the AGU runners each handling two laps.  Fans were out along the course in record numbers to cheer on the massively popular Hakone champs.  Accidental interference during the comedians' third exchange forced Nakamura to go wide and lose several seconds that neither Tamura nor anchor Isshiki could make up, and the comedian team held on for the win.  AGU tweeted pics of its "gutted" team post-race.


The Mini Marathon started with non-runner women, then non-runner men, then entertainers with running experience carefully seeded all the way up to Kamino's 5:10 handicap.  The most experienced runner among the entertainers and a regular on the program, Kenji Moriwaki upped the stakes by saying pre-race that if Kamino won he would retire from the show.  Model Nonoka Ono went out to an early lead, just finishing her first lap when Kamino started, but was quickly caught by Tatsuya Ueda, a singer from the boy band KAT-TUN who was doubling from the Mini Ekiden.  From there to the finish it was a race between Ueda and Kamino, Kamino flying through the field in pursuit.

Out among the deafening, screaming fans, the AGU team student managers were on the course holding up signs showing the time difference between Kamino and the leader, just like at Hakone.  With one lap to go Kamino was down to one minute behind, and on the last uphill before the turn into the studio for the finish he came into sight of Ueda for the first time.  It looked like he would do it, but on the highly technical last stretch into the studio Ueda held on to take the win by one second, saving Moriwaki from having to quit the show.  Moriwaki was 3rd just 18 seconds back with 4th-placer Ayumu Mori and last fall's winner Gaku Sano a few steps behind, the close finish showing just how well whoever at TBS was doing the handicapping knew their game. There's no doubt that when it comes to making distance running popular and entertaining for the general population Japan leads the way.


© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Toyota Wins New Expo Ekiden

A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka's hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday's ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University , didn't field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota , who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48. Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University b...

Weekend Road Race Roundup

The ACN Expo Ekiden was the biggest race of the weekend domestically, but there was so much else going on domestically and internationally that it was hard to keep track. We'll do our best. Saturday in Fukuoka the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km moved from its usual fall date to a spring date for the first time. Ireland's Sophie O'Sullivan outran high school sensation Sherry Drury by 1 second for the win in the women's mile, 4:53 to 4:54. Drury's mark was a new U20 NR. The men's mile also came down to a 1-second win for Irishman Brian Fay over Japan's Jo Aoki , 4:12 to 4:13. Margaret Akidor had an easy win in the women's 5 km in 15:34, with veteran Yuichiro Ueno outrunning a doubling Fay in the men's 5 km to win in 14:07. Complete results here . The Matsue Ladies Half Marathon hosted the National University Women's Half Marathon Sunday. National champion Ritsumeikan University 's Makoto Tsuchiya outran Daito Bunka University 's...

Kiyama and Murakami Making International Debuts at United Airlines NYC Half

Since the start of JRN's collegiate development program in 2012, a partnership between the New York Road Runners and the Ageo City Half Marathon that brings two of the top male university half marathoners in the country to the United Airlines NYC Half every year, a total of 25 athletes have made the trip. For most of them it's been their first time racing outside Japan. 10 of the 25 have been from Komazawa University , including 4 of the 5 fastest times and 4 of the 5 best placings. Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 for 5th in 2017 leads both lists and still stands as the fastest half marathon ever run by a Japanese man on U.S. soil. This year two more Komazawa runners are in New York as numbers 24 and 25, Yudai Kiyama and Hibiki Murakami . At Ageo last November Kiyama and Murakami ran PBs of 1:01:59 and 1:02:04 for 2nd and 4th overall to pick up invites to the NYC Half. A 3rd-year, Kiyama was a national-level 1500 m runner in high school. At Komazawa he struggled to make its ...