Skip to main content

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems and Nissin Shokuhin Group Win New Year Ekiden Regional Qualifiers

by Brett Larner


Corporate men's ekiden season got started Thursday with two regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden coporate men's national championships.  In the Kyushu Region, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems went back and forth with favorite Asahi Kasei throughout the race to score its first-ever regional win.  Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) got things started right with a 1:22 lead over Ryo Kiname (MHPS) on the 12.9 km First Stage.  Mitsubishi's new Kenyan Enock Omwamba caught Asahi Kasei's Takaya Arake on the Second Stage, both teams handing off to their third runners at the same time.  Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) opened a 42-second lead over Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei), but on the next stage Murayama's twin brother Kota Murayama, the 10000 m national record holder, cut Mitsubishi's lead down to 11 seconds.  Takashi Ichida turned it into a 59-second Asahi Kasei lead on the Fifth Stage, but Mitsubishi's sixth man Hayato Mera came back to within 1 second at the handoff to the anchor stage.  Over the 14.7 km Seventh Stage Mitsubishi's Toshiki Sadakata blew past Asahi Kasei's Yuki Arimura to give Mitsubishi a 27-second margin of victory.  With only seven real corporate teams in the region, the top seven teams in the field made the cut for the New Year Ekiden.


In the Tokyo-area East Japan Region, favorite Nissin Shokuhin Group led almost start to finish, leading man Masaki Toda opening a four-second margin on the 11.6 km First Stage.  Nissin's second man Akinobu Murasawa fell to 6th on the 15.3 km Second Stage but was only 5 seconds out of 1st.  Nissin's next man Leonard Barsoton had no trouble turning that into a 45 second lead, and from there to the finish Nissin Shokuin remained unchallenged.  Nissin's final margin of victory was 45 seconds over surprise runner-up Kanebo, now coached by marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka.  The Toshihiko Seko-led DeNA team took 3rd, meaning two relatively minor teams outrunning recent New Year Ekiden champions like Konica Minolta, Fujitsu and the strong Honda team.


Fourteen teams qualified for the New Year Ekiden, and the day's biggest drama came in the race for the final qualifying position.  Starting the 13.5 km anchor stage four seconds ahead of ND Software, the Sunbelx supermarket team held on to 14th all the way until the last lap of the track.  In his last kick ND Software anchor Akihito Kobari kicked past Sunbelx's Ryosuke Arakawa to snatch away 14th and the last ticket to the national championships.  For many of the smaller teams making it to the New Year Ekiden can be life or death, their sponsor funding depending on their success.  For ND Software it was a triumph.  For Sunbelx, potentially serious.

53rd Kyushu Corporate Men's Ekiden
Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 11/3/16
14 teams, 7 stages, 82.6 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results - top seven teams qualify for New Year Ekiden
1. Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems - 4:02:57
2. Asahi Kasei - 4:03:24
3. Toyota Kyushu - 4:05:16
4. Yasukawa Denki - 4:05:39
5. Kyudenko - 4:07:57
6. Kurosaki Harima - 4:10:32
7. Nishitetsu - 4:11:53
-----
8. Oita Select Team A - 4:21:35
9. Asahi Kasei Nobeoka - 4:23:07
10. Kyocera Kagoshima - 4:24:17

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (12.9 km) - Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) - 36:55
Second Stage (7.4 km) - Mamiyo Nigussie (Yasukawa Denki) - 20:49
Third Stage (13.0 km) - Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) - 37:04
Fourth Stage (8.2 km) - Kota Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 24:08
Fifth Stage (13.4 km) - Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 39:43
Sixth Stage (13.0 km) - Hayato Mera (MHPS) - 37:40
Seventh Stage (14.7 km) - Toshiki Sadakata (MHPS) - 43:34

57th East Japan Corporate Men's Ekiden
Kumagaya, Saitama, 11/3/16
26 teams, 7 stages, 77.5 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results - top fourteen teams qualify for New Year Ekiden
1. Nissin Shokuhin Group - 3:47:45
2. Kanebo - 3:48:34
3. DeNA - 3:49:07
4. Yakult - 3:49:24
5. Honda - 3:49:32
6. Hitachi Butsuryu - 3:49:38
7. Konica Minolta - 3:49:42
8. Fujitsu - 3:50:07
9. Yachiyo Kogyo - 3:52:14
10. Subaru - 3:52:58
11. Press Kogyo - 3:53:13
12. JR Higashi Nihon - 3:53:52
13. Komori Corp. - 3:54:49
14. ND Software - 3:55:54
-----
15. Sunbelx - 3:55:56
16. Police Headquarters - 3:56:11
17. Comody Iida - 4:02:35

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (11.6 km) - Masaki Toda (Nissin Shokuhin Group) - 33:27
Second Stage (15.3 km) - Shun Inoura (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 45:03
Third Stage (9.2 km) - Leonard Barsoton (Nissin Shokuhin) - 25:47
Fourth Stage (9.5 km) - Keigo Yano (Nissin Shokuhin) - 27:58 - CR
Fifth Stage (7.8 km) - Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) / Abiyot Abinet (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 23:14 - CR
Sixth Stage (10.6 km) - Shuhei Shirota (Kanebo) - 30:20
Seventh Stage (13.5 km) - Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta) - 40:05

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr