Elevated to the winner's circle after last year's national champion Universal Entertainment was disqualified, Panasonic did it for real this year with a wire-to-wire lead for the 2018 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships title.
Last year's First Stage winner Kaori Morita did it again this year, putting Panasonic 5 seconds ahead at the first exchange. Second runner Sakiko Naito fought off multiple attacks from Nana Kuraoka of 2013-2015 national champion Denso to keep a 2-second lead at the next exchange, where 19-year-old Nanami Watanabe took the tasuki for the longest stage of the day, the 10.9 km Third Stage.
The relatively unknown Watanabe was a revelation, obliterating 2:21~2:23 marathon trio Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal), Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) and Honami Maeda (Tenmaya), track star Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post), stage record holder Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) and more top-level talent to open Panasonic's lead to 57 seconds with a 34:31 stage win.
Toyota Jidoshokki came close to catching Panasonic on the shortest stage, the 3.6 km Fourth Stage, thanks to a new stage record by Kenyan Helen Ekarare, but a stage record by Yuka Hori on the 10.0 km Fifth Stage put Panasonic back 1:06 in front, an almost unbreakable lead that gave rookie anchor Mashiro Mori peace of mind to bring the team home to the national title in 2:15:22, 57 seconds ahead of Tenmaya.
Daihatsu held off a fast-closing Yamada Denki for 3rd in 2:16:32, with October's qualifying race winner Wacoal leading a cluster of teams to round out the 5th through 8th-place positions on the eight-deep podium. While the top eight teams all finished within 1:35 to score places at the 2019 National Championships, 9th placer Shiseido finished 2:19 off the podium, a significant gap between the top level and the best of the rest. Contributing to that were the absences of Kyudenko, which DNFd as a team when third runner Misaki Kato dropped out midway through the stage with an Achilles tendon injury, and Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo, who were a DNF while leading October's qualifier when team member Harumi Okamoto became disoriented.
Most of the women in the race now turn their attention to individual road races from 10 km to the marathon, including December's Sanyo Ladies Road Race and January's Osaka International Women's Marathon. Some will represent their home prefectures at the season-ending National Women's Ekiden January 13 in Kyoto.
38th National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships
Sendai Miyagi, 11/25/1822 teams, 6 stages, 42.195 km
complete results
Individual Stage Best Performances
First Stage (7.0 km) - Kaori Morita (Panasonic) - 22:15
Second Stage (3.9 km) - Nao Yamamoto (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 12:14
Third Stage (10.9 km) - Nanami Watanabe (Panasonic) - 34:31
Fourth Stage (3.6 km) - Helen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 10:54 - CR
Fifth Stage (10.0 km) - Yuka Hori (Panasonic) / Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) - 32:10 - CR
Sixth Stage (6.795 km) - Juri Ichikawa (Yamada Denki) - 21:37
Team Results - top 8 seeded for 2019
1. Panasonic - 2:15:22
2. Tenmaya - 2:16:19
3. Daihatsu - 2:16:32
4. Yamada Denki - 2:16:35
5. Wacoal - 2:16:52
6. Toyota Jidoshokki - 2:16:53
7. Japan Post - 2:16:53
8. Denso - 2:16:57
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9. Shiseido - 2:19:06
10. Sekisui Kagaku - 2:19:18
11. Universal Entertainment - 2:19:21
12. Daiichi Seimei - 2:19:22
13. Kyocera - 2:20:21
14. Route Inn Hotels - 2:20:41
15. Starts - 2:20:58
16. Edion - 2:21:04
17. Higo Ginko - 2:21:37
18. Sysmex - 2:21:39
19. Hokuren - 2:21:53
20. Otsuka Seiyaku - 2:22:43
21. Kagoshima Ginko - 2:23:04
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DNF - Kyudenko
© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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