Skip to main content

Tokai University Recruits Top Three Finishers on 2016 National High School Ekiden First Stage

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20170131-00000258-sph-spo

translated by Brett Larner

After a recruiting coup with its 2016-17 incoming class that saw eight first-years run sub-14 for 5000 m, sub-29 for 10000 m and/or sub-1:03 for the half marathon, Tokai University will see another class of "super rookies" in 2017-18.  The top three finishers on the First Stage at last December's National University High School Ekiden, its most competitive and prestigious stage, have all enrolled at Tokai, stage winner Ryota Natori (Saku Chosei H.S.), runner-up Kiseki Shiozawa (Iga Hakuho H.S.) and 3rd-placer Takeshi Nishida (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.).

Looking at the previous year's First Stage, including both second and third-years at the time 7 of the top 10 will now be running at Tokai.  Every spring Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi holds a training camp to which he invites 200 runners from the ten best running high schools from across the country.  Explaining the secret of his success in recruitment, Morozumi said, "We are constantly doing events like the training camp that help them understand the merits of Tokai University."

Translator's note: Prior to starting work at Tokai, Morozumi was one of the most successful high school coaches in Japanese history as the head coach of Saku Chosei H.S.  At Saku Chosei he coached many of the current generation's best Japanese distance runners including Akinobu Murasawa (Nissin Shokuhin), Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project), Yuki Sato (Nissin Shokuhin) and Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA). Under his cross country-based coaching the 2008 Saku Chosei team ran the fastest-ever time by an all-Japanese team at the National High School Ekiden, covering the seven-stage, 42.195 km course in 2:02:18.

Comments

CK said…
This report encouraged me to go back and re-read some previous Morozumi links, with your 29 Sep 2011 article and interview proving particularly interesting, especially after 5 years have elapsed...
Brett Larner said…
This one was also interesting:

http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.jp/2016/12/maximizing-hakone-ekiden-performance.html

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that  Sis

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half