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Hakone Ekiden Universities Struggle With Flood Damage to Home Tracks

Big Three University Ekiden season kicked off Oct. 14 with the six-stage, 45.1 km Izumo Ekiden in Shimane. Among the teams competing was Chuo Gakuin University, making its tenth appearance at Izumo. Just days before the race its home track and training ground in Abiko, Chiba was flooded in the aftereffects of Typhoon #19. Having just been renovated and resurfaced in August, the Chuo Gakuin track now sits under 4 m of water. Head coach Yuji Kawasaki, 57, commented somberly, "It's going to be out of commission for the rest of the year. I have to give the question of where we can do our speed work some serious thought."

Normally the start of ekiden season is marked by excitement and optimism, but across the Kanto Region university coaches and athletes shared Kawasaki's weighty tone. Few, though, were impacted as hard as Chuo Gakuin as it prepares for a return trip to Hakone. Immediately after the typhoon on Oct. 12 conditions at Chuo Gakuin's track facility were normal, but as the nearby Tone River swelled with water it spilled over its embankments on Oct. 13 to flood the track 4 m deep in the span of just a couple of hours. Coach Kawasaki and team members were already in Izumo at the time, but when he received reports on the situation from team staff who had remained at the university he was deeply concerned.

"That area flooded once about 30 years ago, and at that time 20 or 30 cm of mud and sand was left behind once the water was pumped out," he recalled gravely. "This time the flooding is worse, so I think it's going to be difficult to use the track and area anytime in the foreseeable future. The team dormitory wasn't damaged and all the athletes were safe. There will be many problems with finding places to work out, but all we can do is work had together, students and staff."


The Izumo Ekiden was the first step on the road to recovery, with Chuo Gakuin finishing 11th overall. Several of their rivals also faced flooding at their home grounds along the Tama River. Yasuhiro Maeda, 41, head coach of winner Koku Gakuin University, was likewise somber as he said, "Our team dormitory just survived without getting flooded, but some people in an apartment building just a few hundred meters away drowned." Runner-up Komazawa University head coach Hiroaki Oyagi, 61, commented, "There was no problem at our team dormitory, but I've been told that our track was flooded at one point and is still underwater now."

3rd-place Toyo University's campus in Kawagoe, Saitama near the Iruma River was designated as an evacuation advisory area on Oct. 12 but escaped undamaged. Nearby Daito Bunka University, which missed out on qualifying for Izumo this season, is located near the site of some of the most severe flooding in Saitama, but like Toyo its team dormitory escaped the waters.

source article:
https://hochi.news/articles/20191013-OHT1T50138.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner

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