National University Women's Ekiden Preview

Some of its major events have been canceled, but championship ekiden keeps moving forward. This weekend it's the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the national university women's championships, with 25 teams from around the country 38.1 km in six stages around Sendai. In some ways the national distribution of the top end of the field is more interesting than at next month's National University Ekiden, where schools from the Tokyo-centered Kanto Region dominate the eight-deep podium every year.

Since Matsuyama University broke Ritsumeikan University's near monopoly on the national title in 2016 Meijo University has come up to take Ritsumeikan's place as the top program in collegiate women's long distance, winning Morinomiyako in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Meijo comes to Sendai as the favorite again, with Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu having won the 1500 m at September's National University Championships and Rika Kaseda taking the 10000 m. Many of its best runners turned in solid runs at the Oct. 11 Nagasaki Nighter including a 32:04.99 win in the 10000 m from Kaseda and a 15:40.93 from Yuna Wada in the 5000 m.

2nd behind Meijo in all three of its current streak of wins, Daito Bunka University is still the main contender to stop Meijo from making it four in a row. 2019 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuka Suzuki and fellow senior Natsuki Sekiya lead DBU, with 2nd-year Reimi Yoshimura, one of Japan's top current steeplers, making it a strong trio to contend against Meijo's three big guns.

2nd in 2016 and 3rd every year since, Ritsumeikan had runners in the top 5 in both 1500 m and 10000 m at September's collegiate Nationals and looks likely to finish there again unless one of the lower-ranked programs performs on race day. Last year's 4th and 5th placers Matsuyama and Nittai University are just about the only teams that might pull that off, with Osaka Geijutsu University a darkhorse, up in strength after finishing 9th last year.

NTV will be broadcasting live starting at 12:00 p.m. Sunday Japan time. It doesn't look like there's an official live stream, but there are options like mov3.co, iTVer, and TVJapanLive that might work. We'll be doing English commentary on @JRNLive as usual.

Morinomiyako Ekiden Team Entries

38th National University Women's Ekiden

Sendai, Miyagi, 25 Oct. 2020

25 teams, 6 stages, 38.1 km

1. Meijo University (Aichi)

2. Daito Bunka University (Tokyo)

3. Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto)

4. Matsuyama University (Ehime)

5. Nittai University (Tokyo)

6. Josai University (Saitama)

7. Osaka Gakuin University (Osaka)

8. Kansai University (Osaka)

9. Sapporo Gakuin University (Hokkaido)

10. Tohoku Fukushi University (Miyagi)

11. Takushoku University (Tokyo)

12. Juntendo University (Chiba)

13. Toyo University (Gunma)

14. Chuo University (Tokyo)

15. Niigata Iryo Fukushi University (Niigata)

16. Chukyo Gakuin University (Gifu)

17. Osaka Geijutsu University (Osaka)

18. Kyoto Sangyo University (Kyoto)

19. Bukkyo University (Kyoto)

20. Kansai Gaikokugo University (Osaka)

21. Kyoto Koka Joshi University (Kyoto)

22. Kantai Heiyo University (Okayama)

23. Fukuoka University (Fukuoka)

24. Kanoya Taiiku University (Kagoshima)

25. Ishinomaki Senshu University (Miyagi)

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

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