Skip to main content

Sapporo Kokusai Women and Sapporo Gakuin Men Win Hokkaido University Ekiden

The 32nd Hokkaido University Ekiden took place Aug. 15 on a 3.26 km loop course inside Sapporo's Moerenuma Park. In the six-stage, 35.86 km women's race, which served as the regional qualifier for the Oct. 25 Morinomiyako Ekiden national championships in Sendai, Sapporo Kokusai University swept all six stage bests to win in a new event record of 2:06:13.

Overcoming the challenges of the coronavirus era, it was Sapporo Kokusai's fourth-straight win. Captain Reo Aoyama lit the fuse when she took the lead on the 6.52 km First Stage. At last year's Nationals she was responsible for the First Stage but finished last in 25th, the team only managing to pull itself up to 22nd by the end of the race. "I wanted to get rid of last year's disappointment with this run and get our season off the ground with some momentum," she said. Aoyama succeeded in that goal, handing off with a margin of almost 4 minutes on 2nd place.

Head coach since the team was founded, Kenji Yoshizawa, 67, commented, "We haven't really been able to train as a team much during the coronavirus crisis, but you could see that the situation has brought out the athletes' autonomy, especially among the seniors." Sapporo Kokusai was only able to resume training earlier this month. While the university was shut down they weren't able to use the 900 m cross country loop on campus, but athletes continued to train on their own. Yoshizawa's wife Eiko has worked hard to support the team, handling instruction in proper disinfection techniques and other duties.

On May 15, Hiroaki Ueno, an advisor to the team since its launch, passed away abruptly at age 78. The team's athletes will compete at Nationals in mourning. Up to now its best-ever placing at Nationals was 18th in 2018. As captain since her first year at the school, Aoyama showed determination as she said, "We're going to make top 15 for the first time. I want to pay back everything I've earned over the last four years."


The eight-stage, 101.06 km men's race likewise served as the regional qualifying race for the Nov. 1 National University Men's Ekiden. Sapporo Gakuin University ran an event record 5:23:49 to score its third-straight win and trip to Nationals. It was Sapporo Gakuin's 27th time winning the race.

In the absence of star third-year Lawrence Ngure, who was back home in Kenya at the start of the coronavirus crisis and remains unable to return due to Japan's immigration restrictions, two first-years who competed at last year's National High School Ekiden stepped up to take leadership roles. Rival Sapporo Kokusai University led on the First Stage, but on the Second Stage Junya Tanigawa, a former junior teammate of Ngure's at Sapporo Yamanote H.S., overtook Sapporo Kokusai with a stage-winning run.

On the anchor stage Hokkaido Sakae H.S. graduate Aoto Miyamoto delivered a powerful run to seal Sapporo Gakuin's win. Miyamoto's mother Megumi passed away at age 46 on July 27 after battling illness. "I hope mom saw us win from up in heaven," he said after the race.


source articles:
https://hochi.news/articles/20200816-OHT1T50129.html
https://hochi.news/articles/20200816-OHT1T50136.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...
2 comments
Read more