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

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...
1 comment
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more