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

National University Championships Entry Lists and Streaming

The 95th National University Track and Field Championships run Friday through Monday at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama. The complete meet schedule and live results are here . The 10000 m races were already held separately earlier this season. Streaming starts at 9:00 a.m. Saturday Japan time, with separate field event channels and Day 2 and 3 streaming here . Top entries in each event with best performance in the qualifying window: Men 100 m Shoma Yamamoto (Hiroshima Univ.) - 10.04 Fukuto Komuro (Chuo Univ.) - 10.07 Naoki Nishioka (Tsukuba Univ.) - 10.09 Riku Oishi (Toyo Univ.) - 10.13 Kaito Kuroki (Chuo Univ.) - 10.14 Ryunosuke Mizuno (Waseda Univ.) - 10.14 Yugo Haitamataira (Juntendo Univ.) - 10.17 Shun Miyashita (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 10.19 200 m Akira Hayashi (Keio Univ.) - 20.36 Tomoru Funaki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 20.39 Oma Asai (Tsukuba Univ.) - 20.47 Reishin Yamamoto (Toyo Univ.) - 20.49 Shingo Suzuki (Tokai Univ.) - 20.54 Haruto Nakamura (Fukuoka Univ.) - 20.55 400 m Shinya Hayashi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Yuasa and Niiya Win Hokkaido Marathon, 6 Qualify for Olympic Trials

  Six more people picked up qualifying spots for next year's MGC Race at yesterday's Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo, guaranteeing themselves places at Japan's 2028 Los Angeles Olympics marathon trials. In the men's race, Hibiki Yoshida tried to break away from the massive lead group at 30 km, opening a 25-second lead between there and 35 km before getting cut down by the chase trio of Jin Yuasa , Ken Tansho and Masato Arao . All three stayed together until the very end, Yuasa showing the same kind of closing speed he had in winning 2025 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon and pulling away to win in 2:10:46. The debuting Tansho was next in 2:10:55, with Arao, 6th at last year's Sydney Marathon in an excellent 2:07:42, 3rd here in 2:10:59. By clearing 2:12:00 all three picked up MGC qualifying spots, freeing them up to go overseas next spring. Continuing a great season, Soka University 's Shoki Yamaguchi was 4th in 2:11:47, missing out on trials qualification but bea...
1 comment
Read more

Monterey Welcomes Student-Athletes from Sister City Nanao, Japan

a press release by the Monterey-Nanao Cross Country Exchange Project photos here Fourteen student-athletes from Nanao High School in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, recently completed a weeklong visit to the Monterey Peninsula as part of the Monterey–Nanao Cross Country Exchange Project , bringing together young people from the two Sister Cities through running, education, environmental stewardship, cultural exchange, and friendship. The seven boys and seven girls from Nanao were paired with 14 members of the Monterey High School cross country team and stayed in their homes throughout the visit. The week marked the first half of a reciprocal exchange that will continue when the Monterey students travel to Nanao later this year. The visitors received their first introduction to Monterey shortly after arriving at Monterey High School, walking with their hosts to Sister City Park and gathering for photographs beside the sign honoring Nanao — a fitting beginning for a week devoted to bringin...
Post a Comment
Read more