Kawauchi Outruns 103 Teams to Win Yashio Isshu Ekiden

2017 London World Championships marathon 9th-placer Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) gave local club and high school runners something to remember when he ran Sunday's Yashio Shinai Isshu Ekiden solo against 103 six-runner teams. Kawauchi spent most of the 20.0 km race in 2nd, briefly taking the lead at the end of the 3.9 km Second Stage before falling behind after a Third Stage course record run by Kotaro Minowa (Matsudo T&F Assoc.).

Down 13 seconds, Kawauchi came back to split a time 14 seconds faster for the 2.7 km Fifth Stage than its fastest ekiden runner, Yusei Otsuki (Kasukabe H.S. A). Now ahead of Matsudo and out front alone, Kawauchi saved his biggest running for last, dropping a 2:40 final km to split 14 seconds under the 12:34 course record for the 4.0 km anchor stage. Desperate to catch him, Matsudo anchor Shunsuke Matsui went 6 seconds under the old record to become its official new holder but couldn't match Kawauchi's closing speed.

Kawauchi's final time of 1:01:03 was just 35 seconds off the overall ekiden course record, a solid performance kicking off three straight weeks of ekiden action ahead of his runs for the Saitama Prefectural Government at next weekend's Okumusashi Ekiden and the Saitama Ekiden a week later.

53rd Yashio Shinai Isshu Ekiden

Yashio, Saitama, 1/21/18
103 teams + 1 solo runner, 6 stages, 20.0 km
click here for complete results

Top Overall Results
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:01:03
2. Matsudo Track and Field Association - 1:01:24
3. Kasukabe H.S. A - 1:01:55

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage - 4.3 km
1. Tomohiro Ono (Yashio ST) - 12:40 - CR
2. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 12:46
3. Takashi Mino (Matsudo T&F Assoc.) - 12:48

Second Stage - 3.8 km
1. Kohei Uchigi (Kasukabe H.S. A) - 11:37
2. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 11:46
3. Satoshi Ikezawa (Matsudo T&F Assoc.) - 11:52

Third Stage - 2.9 km
1. Kotaro Minowa (Matsudo T&F Assoc.) - 8:40 - CR
2. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 9:01
3. Ryosuke Kaneda (Senshu Prep Matsudo H.S.) - 9:03

Fourth Stage - 2.3 km
1. Junichiro Hayashida (Senshu Prep Matsudo H.S.) - 7:04
2. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 7:09
3. Koji Someya (Matsudo T&F Assoc.) - 7:12

Fifth Stage - 2.7 km
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 8:01
2. Yusei Otsuki (Kasukabe H.S. A) - 8:15
3. Masatatsu Chikyu (Matsudo T&F Assoc.) - 8:24

Sixth Stage - 4.0 km
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 12:20 (CR)
2. Shunsuke Matsui (Matsudo T&F Assoc.) - 12:28 - CR
3. Hyogo Kojima (Kasukabe H.S. A) - 12:33

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Osako Breaks Marathon NR for 3rd Time - Weekend Roundup

It looked like it was going to be a big weekend, and it delivered. For the 3rd time in his career Suguru Osako broke the men's marathon NR, running 1 second under the standing record to take 4th in the Valencia Marathon in 2:04:55. All the way to 40 km he was steady on 2:58/km, 2:05:10 pace, and like a surprising number of other people in both the men's and women's races, there was a massive jump over the last 2.195 km from his projected finish time to his actual one. His run put Osako back on top of the Japanese charts, put the average of Japan's 10 fastest marathon times of the year under 2:06 for the first time, and got him into the L.A. Olympics marathon trials. Valencia has been trying to get top-tier Japanese athletes to come for years, and now that they finally managed to do it it paid off in a big way. Expect more next year. Back home, former Takushoku University captain Derese Workneh won a 3-way race against Toyota teammates Kazuya Nishiyama and Bedan Ka...

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