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Fujitsu and Asahi Kasei Win New Year Ekiden Regional Qualifiers

Fujitsu and Asahi Kasei led the first round of qualifiers for the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, winning Saturday's East Japan and Kyushu regional corporate ekidens.

Starting in 7th, Fujitsu took the lead in the East Japan race thanks to a stage-winning run from second man Hiroki Matsueda and never looked back, its final margin of victory over the 7-stage, 76.9 km course standing at 46 seconds over runner-up Kanebo. Racing for the first time since his 4th-place 2:08:16 finish at September's Berlin Marathon, Fujitsu's Shogo Nakamura had a strong run on the 9.5 km Fourth Stage, finishing 2nd on time in 27:59 behind fellow Komazawa Unviersity graduate Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Konica Minolta).

6th at the final exchange, last year's East Japan winner Honda moved up to 4th thanks to a stage-winning run from anchor and half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara. Shitara was the only runner to break 38 minutes for the 12.9 km Seventh Stage, covering it in 37:42 in a solid tuneup for the Ageo City Half Marathon in two weeks. With 12 teams in the field qualifying for the New Year Ekiden, JR Higashi Nihon ran down Sunbelx on the anchor stage to take the 12th and final spot by a margin of 29 seconds thanks to anchor Koji Gokaya. Ugachi, Shitara and Gokaya are all to set to meet again in a month's time at the Fukuoka International Marathon.

Two-time New Year Ekiden national champion Asahi Kasei started the Kyushu Corporate Ekiden in 3rd, moving up to 2nd on the Second Stage and then the top position on the Third Stage thanks to a stage-winning run from another Fukuoka-bound Komazawa alum, Takuya Fukatsu. Inheriting a 45-second lead from Fukatsu, 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama put Asahi Kasei 1:20 ahead by the end of the Fourth Stage.

Jakarta Asian Games marathon gold medalist Hiroto Inoue had the fastest time on the Fifth Stage to bring MHPS back within a minute of Asahi Kasei, but a stage-winning run from Asahi Kasei's Hiroshi Ichida gave them a virtually unbreakable 2-minute lead heading into the anchor stage. Rio Olympics marathoner Satoru Sasaki brought Asahi Kasei home in 1st. Both he and Ichida will also line up in Fukuoka Behind him Kyudenko's Shohei Otsuka, yet another Komazawa grad, overtook MHPS' Toshiki Sadakata for 2nd.

With the top 9 teams qualifying for the New Year Ekiden marathoner Asuka Tanaka gave the Hiramatsu Byoin team a scare in his debut ekiden in their uniform, starting the stage in 8th, losing a place to Togami Denki and coming into the sights of 10th-place Kyocera Kagoshima. Togami Denki finished 8th to make the New Year Ekiden for the first time, and with Tanaka holding Kyocera off by 24 seconds Hiramatsu likewise made the grade. Before making his New Year Ekiden debut with Hiramatsu, Tanaka will also run Fukuoka.. Given the number of people lining up there who ran well in today's two races, Fukuoka is bound to be big.

One of my regrets with JRN is not having the time or energy to cover the high school circuit. Alongside the corporate ekidens this weekend, the prefectural high school championship ekidens that qualify the top team in each prefecture for December's National High School Ekiden took place across the country. Two standout performances served to show just how high the level of competition is at the high school level in Japan.

At the Kagoshima Prefecture High School Ekiden the runner-up Shonan H.S. girls' five-runner team averaged under 16:20 for 5 km each. A team that good could do pretty well in NCAA D1, but in Kagoshima they didn't make Nationals. Across Kyushu at the Nagasaki Prefecture High School Ekiden, the Nagasaki Shogyo H.S. girls' star third-year Ririka Hironaka split 15:25 for 5 km en route to an 18:29 CR for the 6.0 km First Stage. Japanese distance runners' best performances are almost never reflected in their IAAF profiles or the new ranking system, flashes of brilliance like these lost in the shadows of the wall built up between the Japanese system and the rest of the world.

59th East Japan Corporate Ekiden

Saitama, 11/3/18
26 teams, 7 stages, 76.9 km
complete results

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (11.6 km) - Yoshihiro Wakamatsu (Nissin Shokuhin) - 33:57
Second Stage (15.3 km) - Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) - 44:12
Third Stage (9.2 km) - Bernard Kimeli (Fujitsu) - 25:23
Fourth Stage (9.5 km) - Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Konica Minolta) - 27:48
Fifth Stage (7.8 km) - Yusuke Sato (Fujitsu) - 22:46
Sixth Stage (10.6 km) - Kazuma Taira (Kanebo) - 30:13
Seventh Stage (12.9 km) - Yuta Shitara (Honda) - 37:42

Top Team Results - top 12 qualify for New Year Ekiden
1. Fujitsu - 3:44:09
2. Kanebo - 3:44:53
3. Subaru - 3:44:54
4. Honda - 3:45:15
5. Konica Minolta - 3:45:18
6. Komori Corp. - 3:45:31
7. Yakult - 3:47:39
8. Press Kogyo - 3:47:43
9. Nissin Shokuhin - 3:48:24
10. Hitachi Butsuryu - 3:48:45
11. Yachiyo Kogyo - 3:48:53
12. JR Higashi Nihon - 3:49:01
-----
13. Sunbelx - 3:49:30
14. Comody Iida - 3:50:44
15. ND Software - 3:52:24

55th Kyushu Corporate Ekiden

Fukuoka, 11/3/18
20 teams, 7 stages, 80.5 km
complete results

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (12.9 km) - Shinichiro Nakamura (Kyudenko) - 37:15
Second Stage (7.0 km) - Daniel Kipkemoi (Nishitetsu) - 18:57
Third Stage (10.9 km) - Takuya Fukatsu (Asahi Kasei) - 31:28
Fourth Stage (9.5 km) - Kota Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 27:06
Fifth Stage (13.0 km) - Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) - 38:05
Sixth Stage (10.9 km) - Hiroshi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 32:16
Seventh Stage (16.3 km) - Shohei Otsuka (Kyudenko) - 46:26

Top Team Results - top 9 qualify for New Year Ekiden
1. Asahi Kasei A - 3:52:57
2. Kydenko - 3:54:36
3. MHPS - 3:55:02
4. Kurosaki Harima - 3:55:49
5. Yasukawa Denki - 3:56:59
6. Toyota Kyushu - 3:57:12
7. Nishitetsu - 3:58:54
(8) Corporate Select Team - 4:02:09
(9) Asahi Kasei B - 4:03:15
8. Togami Denki - 4:11:37
9. Hiramatsu Byoin - 4:11:56
-----
10. Kyocera Kagoshima - 4:12:20
(13) Oita Select Team - 4:17:12
11. Asahi Kasei Nobeoka - 4:17:35

text and photo © 2018 Brett Larner

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