Skip to main content

Meijo University Women Win First National Title Since 2005



3rd last year, Meijo University returned to the top with its first national title since 2005 at today's National University Women's Ekiden Championships in Sendai.

Missing its star pair Anju Takamizawa and Riho Takamizawa (no relation), defending champion Matsuyama University was never in the race, 25th of 26 teams on the 6.4 km First Stage and eventually working its way up to 13th. 6 seconds out of 1st, Meijo took over the lead on the 5.6 km Second Stage and held it almost the entire rest of the way.

With a record of ten wins and four 2nd-place finishes in the last 14 years, last year's runner-up Ritsumeikan University went into 1st on the 4.8 km Fourth Stage thanks to a stage best run by Ayano Tanaka, setting up a duel between course record holder Kotona Ota (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and #1-ranked first-year Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) on the day's longest stage, the 9.2 km Fifth Stage. Kaseda caught Ota within the first 3 km, but while it looked like the younger Kaseda might have done too much too soon to catch the more experienced Ota, within a km of being caught it was Ota who faded away. By the end of the stage Kaseda had turned an 18-second deficit into a 16-second lead, one that anchor Kanna Tamaki lengthened to 35 seconds by the end of the race with Meijo's only stage win of the day to bring the team home 1st in 2:05:15.


2nd three times in the last four years, Daito Bunka University moved into 2nd on the Fifth Stage with a near-miss on the Ota's course record by fourth-year Natsuki Sekiya, a position anchor Aki Saito kept to deliver DBU another runner-up finish in 2:05:50. Ritsumeikan was 3rd in 2:06:46, its first time finishing outside the top 2 since 2002. Having lost to Matsuyama last year Ritsumeikan turned it around to win the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, and this year again that will be its only hope of adding to its dynasty.

The top eight teams at Nationals receive guaranteed places at the next year's championships, and this year the battle around the 8th-place cutoff was one of the day's highlights. At the start of the Fifth Stage 16 seconds separated 7th-place Josai University and 9th-place Tokyo Nogyo University. 2017 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuki Munehisa moved Tokyo Nogyo into 6th, while Josai fell to 11th, now 29 seconds behind 8th-place Toyo University with two other teams separating them. It took one of the best runs of the day from Josai anchor Momoka Mitsugi to get Josai back into position, blowing by Toyo anchor Nene Uchida to steal back 8th in 2:08:46.

The Tokyo-area Kanto Region is traditionally more a center of university men's distance running due to the Hakone Ekiden. This year Kanto teams took four of the eight podium places at 2nd, 6th, 7th and 8th. The more powerful Kansai Region put teams into 3rd, 4th and 5th, with winner Meijo the only Tokai Region team to score. The university women's ekiden circuit has a long way to go to match the popularity of Hakone and the other men's races, but its truly national geographic representation is a breath of fresh air from the usual suspects feel of the Kanto-dominated Big Three University Men's Ekidens.

35th Morinomiyako Ekiden

National University Women's Ekiden Championships
Sendai, Miyagi, 10/29/17
6 stages, 38.0 km, 26 teams
click here for complete results

Top Team Results - top 8 seeded for 2018
1. Meijo University - 2:05:15
2. Daito Bunka University - 2:05:50
3. Ritsumeikan University - 2:06:46
4. Osaka Gakuin University - 2:07:00
5. Kansai University - 2:07:04
6. Tokyo Nogyo University - 2:07:56
7. Nittai University - 2:08:12
8. Josai University - 2:08:46
-----
9. Toyo University - 2:09:10
10. Kyoto Sangyo University - 2:09:22

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (6.4 km) - Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) - 20:38
Second Stage (5.6 km) - Naruha Sato (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 17:53
Third Stage (6.8 km) - Ai Hosoda (Nittai Univ) - 22:06
Fourth Stage (4.8 km) - Ayano Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 16:01
Fifth Stage (9.2 km) - Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 29:30
Sixth Stage (5.2 km) - Kanna Tamaki (Meijo Univ.) - 17:11

© 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Yugeta Betters Own 60+ World Record

Women's 60+ marathon world record holder Mariko Yugeta , 62, bettered her 2:52:13 record Saturday at Tokyo's Itabashi Trial Marathon . Part of the Trial Marathon Series, a nationwide series of professionally-operated uncertified micro-races that has popped up during the coronavirus pandemic, the Itabashi Trial Marathon covered almost 17 laps of a flat 2.5 km course along the Arakawa River on Tokyo's northern border.  Yugeta went out at just under 4:00/km, going through halfway in 1:24:04 and making it to 30 km in 2:00:08 before her pace started to slip. Ultimately she ran 2:52:01, 1st among the 21 female finishers and 14th overall . "That's it for marathons for this season," she told JRN post-race. "I didn't make it to sub-2:50, but I'll be training hard to go for it at the Tokyo Marathon this fall." text and photo © 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
2 comments
Read more

25-Year-Old Kyohei Hosoya Targeting Paris Olympics Marathon

It's a fast new world in Japanese men's marathoning, and one of its exciting new stars comes to it straight out of Kyushu. His name is Kyohei Hosoya  (25, Kurosaki Harima). In just his second marathon he ran 2:06:35 for 3rd at February's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon , ranking him at all-time Japanese #6. In college he was mostly sidelined with injury, but since joining the corporate leagues his abilities have come into full flower. Now, with the 2024 Paris Olympics in his sights, he's poised to make another great leap forward. When the race in Lake Biwa began Hosoya was just an unknown 25-year-old, but when he hit the finish line he'd inked his name on the list of top candidates for the Paris Olympics. What once was just a dream is now a realistic goal. "I'd had some vague hopes before about representing Japan," he said, "but now that feeling is burning bright."  Someone who has been involved with Hosoya's athletic career had often told hi
1 comment
Read more

Sato Breaks 1500 m U18 National Record - Weekend Track Roundup

It was a busy weekend on the track across Japan. At Saturday's Kanaguri Memorial Meet  in Kumamoto, the biggest news came in the men's 1500 m where 17-year-old Keita Sato (Rakunan H.S.) ran 3:40.36, a new U18 national record, the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese high schooler, and 3rd-fastest-ever U20 mark. Sato took 4th after leading the first three laps, with two of the three people who finished ahead of him going under 3:40. Winner Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec) broke into the all-time Japanese top ten at 3:38.83 and Keisuke Morita (Komori Corp.) was 2nd in 3:39.37. Steeplechase specialist Kazuya Shiojiri  (Fujitsu) followed up his 10000 m win last month in Nobeoka with a 5000 m PB at Kanaguri, dropping a Kenyan trio led by Justus Kevasa  (Honda) for the win in 13:22.80. A total of thirteen people broke 13:40 across heats. Joan Kipkemoi  (Kyudenko) led Japan-based Africans to sweep the top five spots in the women's 5000 m in 15:30.45, with Ethiopian Burka Desta  (Denso) taki
1 comment
Read more