Nagano Wins National Men's Ekiden Title

video highlights by NHK

The team representing Nagano prefecture overcame a slow start to return to the top of the National Men's Ekiden in the event's 25th anniversary edition. Falling as low as 15th out of the 47 prefectural teams in the race after the first three stages, Nagano's fourth and fifth runners Akihito Kimura and Atsushi Utsuno fought their way up to the top three, setting up junior high schooler Hiroto Yoshioka to take over the lead with an 8:22 course record for the 3.0 km Sixth Stage. 8 seconds up on rival Hyogo with 13.0 km to go, Nagano anchor Yuhi Nakaya widened the margin of victory to 17 seconds by race's end with a 37:18 clocking.

Beaten only by Fukushima's Akira Aizawa on time, Nakaya brought Nagano home in a new record of 2:17:11 for the seven-stage, 48.0 km course. Although only two individual stages saw new course records, the top six teams all broke the old record of 2:18:43, Hyogo taking 2nd in 2:17:28 and Saitama 3rd in 2:17:34 off a solid anchor run by half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara. Despite winning the final stage, Aizawa surprisingly missed its 37:00 course record at 37:10. Fukushima finished only 14th overall.

25th National Men's Ekiden

Hiroshima, 1/19/20
47 teams, 7 stages, 48.0 km
complete results

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (7.0 km) - Yamato Yoshii (Miyagi) - 19:46 - CR
Second Stage (3.0 km, JHS) - Sonata Nagashima (Hyogo) - 8:24
Third Stage (8.5 km) - Kazuki Tamura (Yamaguchi) - 23:42
Fourth Stage (5.0 km) - Takumi Karasawa (Saitama) - 14:07 - CR tie
Fifth Stage (8.5 km) - Kazuki Matsuyama (Fukushima) - 23:55 - CR tie
Sixth Stage (3.0 km, JHS) - Hiroto Yoshioka (Nagano) - 8:22 - CR
Seventh Stage (13.0 km) - Akira Aizawa (Fukushima) - 37:10

Top Team Results
1. Nagano - 2:17:11 - CR
2. Hyogo - 2:17:28 (CR)
3. Saitama - 2:17:34 (CR)
4. Saga - 2:18:24 (CR)
5. Shizuoka - 2:18:36 (CR)
6. Ibaraki - 2:18:41 (CR)
7. Kumamoto - 2:18:44
8. Mie - 2:18:50
9. Miyagi - 2:18:50
10. Chiba - 2:19:10

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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