Denso Wins Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden

The Denso corporate team held off top-ranked Tenmaya and Kamimura Gakuen High School to win the 31st Kitakyushu Women’s Invitational Ekiden, Sunday in Fukuoka. A unique race that pits top-ranked corporate, university and high school teams against each other in a season-ending epilogue to last weekend’s National Women’s Ekiden, the Kitakyushu Invitational features a long anchor stage split into two segments for the high school division to make it teams of five against six.

Denso started the race in 2nd, with leading runner Shuri Ogasawara covering the 5.3 km First Stage in 16:59, 3 seconds behind Rina Miyata (Kyudenko). Its next runner, Husan Zeyituna, dropped a stage best to put Denso 9 seconds ahead, but despite a scare from Kyudenko’s fourth runner Joan Kipkemoi Denso’s win was never at real risk.

Anchor Akko Matsumoto brought them home in 1:27:29, 48 seconds ahead of Kyudenko. Despite a good team performance up to that point, Kyudenko anchor Yuri Karasawa was caught in the final few hundred meters, with Olympic marathon trials 3rd-placer Rei Ohara running 32:56 for the 10.4 km anchor stage to put Tenmaya into 2nd in 1:28:15.

The top high school teams do sometimes contend for the overall win in Kitakyushu, but this year Kamimura Gakuen wasn’t quite at the same level as the top three in the general division. For the first half of the race it went back and forth with local Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S. before its fourth runner Saya Kinoshta broke free with a stage win that put Kamimura Gakuen 22 seconds ahead.

Its final two runners Hana Torii and Madoka Kurokawa did the same, anchor Kurokawa actually overtaking Kyudenko’s Karasawa to put Kamimura Gakuen into 3rd overall in 1:28:24, just 9 seconds behind Tenmaya and 1:01 up on Chikushi Joshi Gakuen.

31st Kitakyushu Women’s Invitational Ekiden

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 1/19/20
open division – 11 teams, 5 stages, 27.4 km
high school division – 18 teams, 6 stages, 27.4 km
complete results

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (5.3 km) – Rina Miyata (Kyudenko) – 16:56
Second Stage (3.8 km) – Husan Zeyituna (Denso) – 11:46
Third Stage (3.9 km) – Mikuni Yada (Denso) – 12:33
Fourth Stage (4.0 km) – Winnie Jeprotich (Kyushu Corporate Select Team) – 11:52
Fifth Stage (10.4 km) – Rei Ohara (Tenmaya) – 32:56
H.S. Fifth Stage (5.9 km) – Hana Torii (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) – 19:02
H.S. Sixth Stage (4.5 km) – Madoka Kurokawa (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) – 14:24

Top General Division Team Results
1. Denso – 1:27:29
2. Tenmaya – 1:28:15
3. Kyudenko – 1:29:17
4. Universal Entertainment – 1:29:42
5. Panasonic – 1:30:03

Top High School Division Team Results
1. Kamimura Gakuen H.S. – 1:28:24
2. Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S. – 1:29:25
3. Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. – 1:30:37
4. Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. – 1:31:21
5. Suma Gakuen H.S. – 1:31:29

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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