Skip to main content

Meijo University Women Break Morinomiyako Ekiden Course Record for Fourth-Straight National Title


Three-time defending Morinomiyako Ekiden champion Meijo University made it four in a row, leading Sunday's National University Women's Ekiden almost start to finish to break its own year-old course record by over a minute and a half.

Rival Ritsumeikan University's leading runner Rinka Hida was the only one to spoil Meijo's party, dropping Meijo's Yuna Wada to win the 6.6 km First Stage by 8 seconds. But on the next stage Yuma Yamamoto put Meijo out front, and with its next three runners all winning their stages, two in stage record time including an impressive 29:14 for the 9.2 km Fifth Stage by 10000 m national collegiate champ Rika Kaseda, its lead only grew. Anchor Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu was 2nd-fastest on her stage, but with a lead of nearly a kilometer she was never in danger of getting caught as she broke the tape in 2:02:57, a full 1:37 under the record for the 6-stage, 38.1 km course that it set last year. Road records might not be worth what they used to be, but with a final margin of victory of 2:51 there was no denying how good the Meijo women were.

2nd in six of the last seven years, Daito Bunka University was down around the 4th-place/5th-place line for the first four stages before its best two runners turned things around. Fifth runner Natsuki Sekiya was second-fastest on the longest stage behind Kaseda to move DBU into 3rd, and a brilliant 22:17 course record on the 6.7 km anchor stage, 28 seconds under the old record, by 2019 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuka Suzuki put DBU into 2nd yet again.

5th last year, Nittai University was the biggest surprise of the day, its second runner Haruko Hosaka moving up from 5th to 3rd and the team staying there until the long Fifth Stage where Izumi Kurihara overtook Ritsumeikan's Misaki Matsumoto for 2nd. Anchor Yukika Miyauchi didn't have what it took to hold off Suzuki, but with the fourth-fastest anchor time she held onto 3rd, tying Nittai's best-ever placing.

Ritsumeikan was 4th, its first time outside the top three since 2002. Like Nittai, Kansai University tied its best-ever placing at 5th, with Osaka Gakuin University, Josai University and Matsuyama University rounding out the eight-deep podium and earning spots at next year's race. The battle for 8th was tough over the last two stages with four teams finishing within a minute of Matsuyama, Takushoku University coming closest at just 20 seconds behind Matsuyama for a school-record 9th.

In the best individual head-to-head race of the day, far back in the field 5000 m national collegiate champ Saya Nakajima blazed up through the back end of the field with the third-fastest time on the 6.9 km Third Stage. En route she passed unknown Noriko Igarashi, who did the usual and tried to latch on. But where most people in her situation hang on for just a few seconds, Igarashi kept surging back in front of Nakajima, again and again and again and again as Nakajima upped her pace to get rid of her. Nakajima eventually got away and Igarashi ended up with only the 15th-fastest time on her stage, but by the end of the race Igarashi's Tohoku Fukushi University finished three places up on Nakajima's Kanoya Taiiku University. There's no doubt Igarashi staying with Nakajima as long as she did played a role in setting that up for the runners still to come.

University women still have one more big ekiden ahead, the year-ending Dec. 30 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, the other national collegiate championships. Before then expect to see many of the stage winners today at November's Kanto Region University Championships, December's National Championships, and elsewhere.

Morinomiyako Ekiden

National University Women's Ekiden Championships
Sendai, Miyagi, 25 Oct. 2020
25 teams, 6 stages 38.1 km

Top Team Results - top 8 auto-qualify for 2021 race
1. Meijo University - 2:02:57 - CR
2. Daito Bunka University - 2:05:48
3. Nittai University - 2:06:11
4. Ritsumeikan University - 2:07:00
5. Kansai University - 2:07:48
6. Osaka Gakuin University - 2:08:34
7. Josai University - 2:08:46
8. Matsuyama University - 2:09:59
-----
9. Takushoku University - 2:10:19
10. Kyoto Sangyo University - 2:10:22
11. Juntendo University - 2:10:27
12. Kyoto Koka University - 2:10:49

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage - 6.6 km
1. Rinka Hida (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 21:16
2. Yuna Wada (Meijo Univ.) - 21:24
3. Karin Murofushi (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 21:29

Second Stage - 3.9 km
1. Haruko Hosaka (Nittai Univ.) - 12:30
2. Yuma Yamamoto (Meijo Univ.) - 12:31
3. Yuki Akiyama (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 12:38

Third Stage - 6.9 km
1. Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) - 21:37 - CR
2. Miyu Nakata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 22:33
3. Saya Nakajima (Kanoya Taiiku Univ.) - 22:39

Fourth Stage - 4.8 km
1. Yuka Masubuchi (Meijo Univ.) - 15:40
2. Karin Akahori (Nittai Univ.) - 15:50
3. Mao Kosugi (Kansai Univ.) - 15:51

Fifth Stage - 9.2 km
1. Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) - 29:14 - CR
2. Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 29:47
3. Yui Komatsu (Matsuyama Univ.) - 30:19

Sixth Stage - 6.7 km
1. Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 22:17 - CR
2. Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) - 22:31 (CR)
3. Yuna Nakayama (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 22:47

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
Meijo Univ are just too strong. Exciting racing nevertheless. It is great to see this event taking place safely in the present conditions. I was happy to be able to watch it. Thanks Brett for the great article as I'm unfamiliar with the names of the athletes here.
October 26, 2020 at 4:52 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...
1 comment
Read more

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...
1 comment
Read more

Asian Games Competition Schedule

The daily athletics event schedule for September's Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games . Wednesday, Sept. 23 7:30 - Women's / Men's Half Marathon Race Walk Final Thursday, Sept. 24 10:00 - Women's Heptathlon 100 mH 10:20 - Mixed 4x400 m Relay Heats 10:30 - Men's Triple Jump Heats 10:40 - Women's Heptathlon High Jump 19:05 - Men's High Jump Heats 19:13 - Women's Heptathlon Shot Put 19:33 - Women's 100 m Heats 19:44 - Women's Triple Jump Final 20:08 - Men's 100 m Heats 20:55 - Men's Discus Throw Final 21:00 - Women's Heptathlon 200 m 21:25 - Women's 10000 m Final 22:15 - Mixed 4x400 m Relay Final Friday, Sept. 25 10:00 - Women's Heptathlon Long Jump 10:30 - Men's 400 m Heats 11:25 - Women's Heptathlon Javelin Throw 19:05 - Women's Shot Put Final 19:13 - Women's 100 m Semifinal 19:33 - Men's 100 m Semifinal 20:03 - Women's Pole Vault Final 20:11 - Women's Heptathlon 800 m 20:32 - Men's 10000 m Final 20:40 - M...
Post a Comment
Read more