Hakone Ekiden Anchor Stage Record Breaker Yudai Shimazu Taking Leave of Absence From Soka University

On July 21 it was learned that Soka University third-year Yudai Shimazu, who at January's Hakone Ekiden broke the 13-year-old anchor stage course record to give Soka its first-ever top ten finish, first return trip to Hakone 2021, and first invitation to the Izumo Ekiden, has taken a leave of absence from the university. Shimazu started the Hakone anchor stage in 11th but succeeded in running down two teams to put Soka into 9th. He earnied special attention for having done it while being one of only 33 runners in the Hakone field of 210 not to wear Nike's Zoom X Vaporfly Next %, instead wearing a white pair of Mizunos.

On the 21st, the Inter-University Athletic Union of Kanto (KGRR) announced the seven teams it will send to the Nov. 1 National University Men's Ekiden Championships. In a normal year these teams would earn their places at June's Yosenkai qualifying race, each team fielding two runners in each of four heats of 10000 m on the track with teams scored by the total of their men's times. This year the Yosenkai was canceled due to coronavirus crisis. Instead, the KGRR totaled each team's eight fastest 10000 m bests in 2019 to determine the seven teams it would send.

Soka would have been ranked 6th, earning a place at Nationals, but Shimazu ranking as its fifth-best man at 29:15.71 meant that with his absence the team dropped to 9th and failed to qualify. A team spokesperson commented, "Shimazu wanted to take some time off from school. We sincerely hope he comes back. He's a crucial part of the team and we want to be part of it as we make our Izumo Ekiden debut and first time running Hakone as a seeded school."

The qualifiers for Nationals were Nihon University, Chuo Gakuin University, Meiji University, Juntendo University, Yamanashi Gakuin University, Nittai University and Josai University. Chuo University was 7 seconds from qualifying, with Soka University another second behind. Eight other Kanto Region programs already had seeded places at Nationals by finishing in the top 8 at last year's race.

Translator's note: It is very unusual in Japan for university students to take a leave of absence, especially an athlete in a top-level program.

source article:
https://hochi.news/articles/20200721-OHT1T50119.html
translated by Brett Larner