Skip to main content

Shitara Runs Down Defending Champ Nagano to Give Saitama 2018 National Men's Ekiden Title

Half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara lived up to his pre-race words, running down everyone who stood between him and the finish line to bring Saitama Prefecture its second-ever national title at the 2018 National Men's Ekiden.

Defending champ Nagano, whose win last year gave it a record seven wins in the National Men's Ekiden's 21-year history, was the favorite for the win, its roster packed with members of 2017 National High School Ekiden winner Saku Chosei H.S. and 2017 Izumo Ekiden winner Tokai University. Shitara was unfazed, saying pre-race that he'd run down anyone within 50 seconds of him on the 13.0 km anchor stage.

Nagano started strong, taking 2nd on the opening leg behind a nearly record-setting run from Ryuto Igawa (Kumamoto). Hoping for its first-ever top-three finish Ibaraki was unexpectedly strong, 5th on the leadoff leg, overtaking Nagano on the Second Stage and then advancing to 1st on the Third Stage thanks to a strong run from 2018 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage winner Homare Morita.

Ibaraki held on to 1st on the Fourth Stage, but on next one, the longest high school stage at 8.5 km, it fell victim to Nagano's Yuhi Nakaya, star member of Saku Chosei H.S. with a 5000 m best of 13:47.22. Nakaya and Nagano's sixth runner Haruta Koshi needed to open a lead of around a minute over Saitama to give anchor Hayato Seki a chance of holding Shitara off, but it wasn't to be.

Behind them, Saitama had spent most of the race hovering around 5th after a slow start. 45 seconds behind after Nakaya's stage-winning run, Saitama's sixth runner Shura Shinoki turned it around with a stage-winning 8:50 for the 3.0 km junior high school stage, taking advantage of a weak run from Koshi to pull with 13 seconds of the lead.

That was all Shitara needed, running down Seki and the intervening teams by 2.5 km and then dropping Seki effortlessly at 5.0 km to solo his way to the win in 2:19:10, one second slower than Nagano's winning time last year but still the 4th-fastest winning time in history. Last year Shitara won the 13.0 km anchor stage in 37:43 ahead of an ambitious debut at the Tokyo Marathon. A year older now with a half marathon national record, a 10000 m PB and two sub-2:10 marathons behind him, this year Shitara covered the same course in 37:12. After one last tuneup at the Marugame Half in two weeks Shitara will return to Tokyo, where he plans to take Toshinari Takaoka's 2:06:16 national record and the million-dollar bonus on offer for it.

Struggling after 10 k m, Seki still managed a quality run to keep 2nd for Nagano in 2:19:56, Chiba coming through in 2:20:34 for its best-ever placing at 3rd. Last year's runner-up Fukuoka was 4th in 2:20:55, powered in part by a brilliant Second Stage course record run by 1500 m, 3000 m and 5000 m junior high school national record holder Kosuke Ishida. 2018 Hakone Ekiden First Stage winner Kazuya Nishiyama, a first-year at Toyo University, had another brilliant run to mark him as the inheritor of Shitara's legacy at Toyo, taking the second-fastest anchor time to outkick Yamaguchi and give Gunma 5th overall. Just back, Kanagawa marked its best-ever placing at 7th, with longtime leader Ibaraki dropping to 8th just 1 second ahead of Fukushima. Tokyo rounded out the top ten thanks to a superb finish from 2017 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Kei Katanishi.

With championship ekiden season now wrapped up, like Shitara Japan's top-level men now turn their focus to the half marathon, where places on the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships team are still up for grabs in Marugame and the National Corporate Half Marathon, and the marathon, where the attention is on qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's new 2020 Olympic Trials for its marathon squad. Along with Suguru Osako (NOP), Shitara looks right now like one of the best bets to make that high-pressure team.

23rd National Men's Ekiden

Hiroshima, 1/21/18
47 teams, 7 stages, 48.0 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Results
1. Saitama - 2:19:10
2. Nagano - 2:19:56
3. Chiba - 2:20:34
4. Fukuoka - 2:20:55
5. Gunma - 2:20:59
6. Yamaguchi - 2:21:01
7. Kanagawa - 2:21:09
8. Ibaraki - 2:21:24
9. Fukushima - 2:21:25
10. Tokyo - 2:21:51

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (7.0 km, H.S.)
1. Ryuto Igawa (Kumamoto) - 19:56
2. Sakito Matsuzaki (Nagano) - 20:00
3. Reito Hanzawa (Fukushima) - 20:01

Second Stage (3.0 km, J.H.S.)
1. Kosuke Ishida (Fukuoka) - 8:14 - CR
2. Hiroki Wakabayashi (Wakayama) - 8:28
3. Takanobu Igarashi (Ibaraki) - 8:31
3. Masaya Tsurukawa (Kumamoto) - 8:31

Third Stage (8.5 km, univ/pro)
1. Kazuki Tamura (Yamaguchi) - 23:43
2. Kazuya Shiojiri (Gunma) - 23:49
3. Hiroki Matsueda (Chiba) - 24:09

Fourth Stage (5.0 km, H.S.)
1. Keita Honma (Nagano) - 14:26
2. Kiyoto Suzuki (Ibaraki) - 14:30
2. Shinya Kojima (Osaka) - 14:30

Fifth Stage (8.5 km, H.S.)
1. Yuhi Nakaya (Nagano) - 24:37
2. Takuro Miura (Hyogo) - 24:52
3. Issei Sato (Chiba) - 25:02
3. Koki Kamata (Kanagawa) - 25:02

Sixth Stage (3.0 km, J.H.S.)
1. Shura Shinoki (Saitama) - 8:50
2. Hibiki Yoshida (Shizuoka) - 8:53
2. Keita Sato (Kyoto) - 8:53

Seventh Stage (13.0 km, univ/pro)
1. Yuta Shitara (Saitama) - 37:12
2. Kazuya Nishiyama (Gunma) - 38:01
3. Naoya Takahashi (Fukuoka) - 38:08

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
Yes, that Ishida kid was a joy to watch. Beautiful form, smooth as silk, just flying past the other runners, who were no slouches. Remember that name.
January 22, 2018 at 8:02 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
1 comment
Read more

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more