Skip to main content

Fastest-Ever Sera Boys Aiming for Course Record Win at Sunday's National High School Ekiden


At Sunday's National High School Ekiden in Kyoto, Hiroshima's Sera H.S. boys will be aiming for their tenth victory in fifty appearances. In their last win five years ago, the Sera boys set the current course record of 2:01:18 for 42.195 km in seven stages. With a 5000 m average time that makes it the fastest Sera team in history, can Sera mark its 50th National High School Ekiden with a milestone achievement?

3rd-year captain Konosuke Shintani and 2nd-years Cosmas Mwangi, Shota Morishita and Shota Shiode have all broken 14 minutes for 5000 m, the benchmark for a top national-level high school time. The average 5000 m PB of its seven fastest runners, 14:01.64, is the best in its fifty appearances to date. "The entire team has raised its level," commented head coach Shoji Shintaku. "There is no weak link. All they need is strength to go with their speed."

But Sera's main rivals are just as strong. Defending champion Sendai Ikuei H.S. of Miyagi ran the fastest time in the regional qualifiers, 2:02:41. Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. also has a top seven 5000 m PB average in the 14:01 range. The dawn of thick super shoes has brought in a new era of speed, and team captain Shintani is conscious of what that means. "The level is really high this year," he said. "I don't think we can win unless we break the course record." 

For some team members there's also a competition of sorts against Sera alumni. In 2015 with a lineup featuring current corporate and collegiate stars like Shiki Shinsako (now Chugoku Denryoku) and Keita Yoshida (now Aoyama Gakuin Univ.), the Sera boys achieved the "Holy Grail" of high school running and took 14 seconds off the National High School Ekiden course record. Current 2nd-year Hibiki Yoshikawa watched that race live on TV when he was in elementary school and had his mind blown. "That was an incredible record," he enthused. "We have to be ones to break, not some other school."

Last year Sera got off to a slow start on the 10.0 km First Stage and finished only 12th. The First Stage will be critically important to the team's chances this year too. Morishita, a candidate along with Shintani to run it, said, "If you run first, you're responsible for putting the team in a position where they can go for the win. That and the course record." The battle to become the best in history is about to kick off. 

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

On the Loss of the ARRS Database

At some point in the last few months I discovered that both versions of the ARRS database, the static one and the searchable version , are gone. Last week David Monti posted a link to the ARRS history of an event he covered in Race Results Weekly, I guess copying and pasting a link from last year without looking at it, and that reminded me to write something about the loss of the database. The Association of Road Racing Statisticians was basically a one-man show operated from the remote Northern California shores by Ken Young . When the site existed its intro read: The Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyses and publishes results and statistics regarding elite distance running at distances 3000m and longer...The data of ARRS is stored in the ARRS database, which has more than 1.3 million performances from more than 240,000 races by more than 95,000 elite and sub-elite distance runners worldwide...This website ...
1 comment
Read more

Multiple National Records This Weekend

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...
Post a Comment
Read more