From Hakone to the Olympics

by Brett Larner

The Hakone Ekiden is Japan's biggest, most prestigious sporting event, a two-day road relay with twenty university teams of ten men each running roughly a half marathon that pulls in tens of millions of viewers on live TV and along the 210 km+ course. University men focus on Hakone above all else. Jason Lawrence, a New Zealand runner who took part in Josai University's summer training camp for Hakone, wrote, "For most team members if not all, Hakone is the pinnacle of their careers and it's what they think about 24/7."

The media and the public love the catchphrase 箱根から世界へ, from Hakone to the World, Hakone's role as a springboard to the World Championships and, ultimately, the Olympics. But at the same time there is frequent criticism that Hakone has grown too big, too popular, that the focus Lawrence cites is a distraction from prioritizing the Olympics as a career goal. This line of criticism suggests that the very best young talent, the runners who might make top five on their stage at Hakone, are being burned out mentally and physically before they can develop.

And yet, of the seven Japanese men entered in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics long distance events, all seven have run the Hakone Ekiden. Three of them graduated from Toyo University, the first school to break a 3:00/km average pace for the entire distance of Hakone. Five of them made the top five on their stages at some point in their university careers. Three won their stages. One set a new stage record. One is even a current Hakone runner. Originally conceived of as a way to develop Olympic marathoners, there may be problems with the Hakone Ekiden and there may be casualties, but at least this year there is not much evidence to support claims of a negative impact on Japan's future Olympians.

The Hakone Ekiden performance history of Japan's seven Rio long distance men:

Suehiro Ishikawa (36, Honda) - men's marathon
graduated Toyo University 2002

2000 Hakone Ekiden (2nd yr.) - Ninth Stage - 15th
1999 Hakone Ekiden (1st yr.) - Second Stage - 14th

Hisanori Kitajima (31, Yasukawa Denki) - men's marathon
graduated Toyo University 2007

2007 Hakone Ekiden (4th yr.) - Eighth Stage - 1st
2006 Hakone Ekiden (3rd yr.) - Fourth Stage - 8th

Kota Murayama (23, Asahi Kasei) - men's 5000 m, 10000 m
graduated Josai University 2015

2015 Hakone Ekiden (4th yr.) - Second Stage - 2nd
2014 Hakone Ekiden (3rd yr.) - Second Stage - 18th
2013 Hakone Ekiden (2nd yr.) - Second Stage - 15th
2012 Hakone Ekiden (1st yr.) - First Stage - 5th

Suguru Osako (24, NOP) - men's 5000 m, 10000 m
graduated Waseda University 2014

2014 Hakone Ekiden (4th yr.) - First Stage - 5th
2013 Hakone Ekiden (3rd yr.) - Third Stage - 2nd
2012 Hakone Ekiden (2nd yr.) - First Stage - 1st
2011 Hakone Ekiden (1st yr.) - First Stage - 1st

Satoru Sasaki (30, Asahi Kasei) - men's marathon
graduated Daito Bunka University 2008

2008 Hakone Ekiden (4th yr.) - Second Stage - 10th
2007 Hakone Ekiden (3rd yr.) - Fifth Stage - 6th
2006 Hakone Ekiden (2nd yr.) - Fifth Stage - 6th
2005 Hakone Ekiden (2nd yr.) - Fifth Stage - 6th

Kazuya Shiojiri (19, Juntendo University) - men's 3000 mSC
current Juntendo University 2nd-year

2016 Hakone Ekiden (1st yr.) - Second Stage - 5th

Yuta Shitara (24, Honda) - men's 10000 m
graduated Toyo University 2014

2014 Hakone Ekiden (4th yr.) - Third Stage - 1st
2013 Hakone Ekiden (3rd yr.) - Third Stage - 1st
2012 Hakone Ekiden (2nd yr.) - Seventh Stage - 1st, course record
2011 Hakone Ekiden (1st yr.) - Third Stage - 8th

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

70th Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...

japan running news

Search This Blog