Skip to main content

Tokai University Wins First-Ever Hakone Ekiden Title



For years the Hakone Ekiden has been a Day One blowout, the uphill Fifth Stage that ends it basically deciding the winner on Day Two. Last year 2014 winner Toyo University won Day One only to fall victim to the superior depth of Aoyama Gakuin University, which ran Toyo down to score a fourth-straight win at Japan's biggest race.

This year Toyo again took the Day One title, opening an almost insurmountable 5:30 lead over AGU. Bigger problems faced it, though, in the form of #1-ranked Tokai University just 1:14 behind. Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi was one of Japan's most successful high school coaches while at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S., beneficiaries of his cross-country-based principles including current marathon national record holder Suguru Osako. Since arriving at Tokai it has taken him time to get his system up and running for college-aged athletes, the last few seasons exceeding AGU on paper but coming up short at the main event.

But today was Tokai's day. Toyo's Sixth Stage runner Shunsuke Imanishi ran the third-fastest time ever on the 800 m downhill course, but Tokai's Reiri Nakashima went 6 seconds faster. Toyo's Seventh Stage man Ryo Kozasa ran the third-fastest time on the stage but came up over a minute short of Tokai's Ryohei Sakaguchi. Tokai's next runner Yohei Komatsu started the 21.4 km Eighth Stage 4 seconds behind Toyo's Munetaka Suzuki, immediately pulling up just behind him and clipping his heels.

Through 15 km Komatsu sat behind Suzuki without making a move until attacking hard just before a steep uphill. Blasting away from Suzuki, Komatsu covered the stage in 1:03:49, 1:02:55 half marathon pace, to take 16 seconds off the oldest stage record on Hakone's books, one set 22 years ago the year Komatsu was born. And from there it was a done deal, captain Haruki Minatoya and anchor Akihiro Gunji both making the top three on their stages to bring Tokai in to its first-ever Hakone win. Over the entire 10-stage, 217.1 km course Tokai ran 10:52:09, 3:00.2/km, the fastest time ever run on the current version of the course.

Left behind midway through the Eighth Stage Toyo again fell short on depth. Midway through the Ninth Stage AGU's Keita Yoshida rolled up on Toyo's Kengo Nakamura through a combination of stage record and all-time top 6 runs from its runners up to that point and a disastrous 19th-place run from Nakamura. AGU sailed by for 2nd in 10:55:50, its Day Two total a stellar 5:23:49 for 109.6 km, 2:57.3/km. Toyo hung on to 3rd in 10:58:03, its 11th year in a row in the top 3 but breaking a 3-year string of 2nd-place finishes. The winner of October's Yosenkai qualifier race, Komazawa University was 4th in 11:01:05 with dark horse Teikyo University a quality 5th in 11:03:10.

The top ten at Hakone every year score places at both October's Izumo Ekiden and the following year's Hakone, making the race for 10th one of the Day Two highlights. This year it was a back-and-forth between Takushoku University, Chuo Gakuin University and Meiji University for the last two places throughout the day until Meiji anchor Hiroyuki Sakaguchi, on the mend from injury and undertrained, fell apart. Locked in a head-to-head duel behind him early Day One leader Chuo University and Waseda University ran Sakaguchi down and raced each other to the line, Chuo taking 11th in a photo finish but both knocked back to October's Yosenkai qualifier. For Waseda it was the first time in 13 years to miss the podium.

Daito Bunka University recovered from its lead runner Kohei Arai spraining his ankle in the first 30 seconds of the race to take 19th in the field of 23. Komatsu beat out Toyo's Akira Aizawa and other stage record breakers for the overall Hakone MVP award, but if one runner truly demonstrated the best of what it means to be an ekiden runner, that giving anything less than your best is to sacrifice everyone else's gifts, there's no doubt at all that it was Arai.

95th Hakone Ekiden Day Two

Hakone-Tokyo, 1/3/19
23 teams, 5 stages, 109.6 km, ~800 m downhill
complete results

Top Individual Stage Performances
Sixth Stage (20.8 km, ~800 m downhill)
1. Yuji Onoda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 57:57 - CR
2. Reiri Nakashima (Tokai Univ.) - 58:06 - all-time #3
3. Shunsuke Imanishi (Toyo Univ.) - 58:12 - all-time #5

Seventh Stage (21.3 km)
1. Keisuke Hayashi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:18 - all-time #2
2. Ryohei Sakaguchi (Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:41 - all-time #6
3. Ryo Kozasa (Toyo Univ.) - 1:03:45

Eighth Stage (21.4 km)
1. Yohei Komatsu (Tokai Univ.) - 1:03:49 - CR
2. Takayuki Iida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:34 - all-time #6
3. Munetaka Suzuki (Toyo Univ.) - 1:04:44 - all-time #9

Ninth Stage (23.1 km)
1. Keita Yoshida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:08:50 - all-time #5
2. Haruki Minatoya (Tokai Univ.) - 1:09:36
3. Ryota Komori (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:09:59

Tenth Stage (23.0 km)
1. Gaku Hoshi (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:09:57 - all-time #9
2. Takato Suzuki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:10:10
3. Akihiro Gunji (Tokai Univ.) - 1:10:12

Overall Team Performances
1. Tokai University - 10:52:09 - CR
2. Aoyama Gakuin University - 10:55:50
3. Toyo University - 10:58:03
4. Komazawa University - 11:01:05
5. Teikyo University - 11:03:10
6. Hosei University - 11:03:57
7. Koku Gakuin University - 11:05:32
8. Juntendo University -11:08:35
9. Takushoku University -11:09:10
10. Chuo Gakuin University - 11:09:23
----- top 10 seeded for 2020 Hakone Ekiden
11. Chuo University - 11:10:39
12. Waseda University - 11:10:39
13. Nittai University - 11:12:17
14. Nihon University - 11:13:25
15. Tokyo Kokusai University - 11:14:42
16. Kanagawa University - 11:15:51
17. Meiji University - 11:16:42
18. Kokushikan University - 11:16:56
19. Daito Bunka University - 11:19:48
20. Josai University - 11:19:57
21. Kanto Region Select Team - 11:21:51
22. Yamanashi Gakuin University - 11:24:49
23. Jobu University - 11:31:14

Day Two Team Performances
5 stages, 109.6 km, ~800 m downhill
1. Aoyama Gakuin University - 5:23:49 - CR
2. Tokai University - 5:24:24
3. Teikyo University - 5:29:40
4. Komazawa University - 5:31:06
5. Toyo University - 5:31:32
6. Hosei University - 5:32:21
7. Waseda University - 5:34:33
8. Chuo University - 5:35:13
9. Nittai University - 5:35:44
10. Chuo Gakuin University - 5:35:51
11. Kanagawa University - 5:36:10
12. Koku Gakuin University - 5:36:17
13. Juntendo University - 5:36:30
14. Daito Bunka University - 5:36:41
15. Takushoku University - 5:37:02
16. Tokyo Kokusai University - 5:37:27
17. Kanto Region Select Team - 5:37:34
18. Nihon University - 5:37:48
19. Josai University - 5:39:47
20. Yamanashi Gakuin University - 5:40:33
21. Kokushikan University - 5:41:03
22. Meiji University - 5:42:28
23. Jobu University - 5:48:48

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Brett Larner said…
Pre-race top 5 prediction:
1.Tokai
2.Komazawa
3.Teikyo
4.Aoyama Gakuin
5.Toyo

Toyo with best chance of punching above weight and finishing higher.

Actual
1.Tokai
2.Aoyama Gakuin
3.Toyo
4.Komazawa
5.Teikyo
January 3, 2019 at 2:32 PM
Stephen Lacey said…
Stage 8 was interesting. I thought Aoyama blew a great chance to surge back to the lead, but muffed it signalling their decline. But it was actually a very good run; Tokai and Toyo simply had it covered.
January 3, 2019 at 9:06 PM
Brett Larner said…
Hi Steve, thanks for commenting. It did look like AGU was going to make up more ground there, but Koyama was too strong at the end. I hope you're doing OK.
January 4, 2019 at 7:11 AM
Matt said…
Amazing race as always. Funnily enough all my local friends that know running still were convinced AGU will come back strong on the 2nd day I guess they were partially right with them taking some 6-7 minutes from Toyo.

Brett I know probably hard to answer but where do you see the next year taking into account graduating runners and spring recruiting? Is it even possible to comment NCAA football style?

Thanks for covering the Hakone Ekiden and all other races as always you do an amazing job.
January 5, 2019 at 12:07 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...
1 comment
Read more

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...
1 comment
Read more

Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...
Post a Comment
Read more