Meijo University Breaks Own CR to Win 3rd-Straight Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden National Title

Meijo University ran up to expectations, breaking its own course record to win a third-straight Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden national title. Head coach Katsuro Yoneda had confidently predicted a perfect win, Meijo runners taking all seven stage titles and the overall win for the hilly 43.4 km course, but on the very first stage Karin Akahori (Nittai Univ.) shot that down, beating Meijo's Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu by 6 seconds to win the stage. But the setback didn't last long, as second runner Yuna Wada tied her stage's record to put Meijo out front.

From there Meijo stretched its lead out to 1:26 by the start of the 10.5 km Fifth Stage, the longest of the day. There Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.), the 2019 World University Games half marathon gold medalist, gave Meijo's Rika Kaseda, the silver medalist in the same race, a scare as she cut Meijo's lead down by 42 seconds. But record-breaking runs on the last two uphill stages from Yuka Masubuchi and Narumi Kobayashi turned Meijo's momentum back around, carrying it on to take a minute off its own overall course record for the win in 2:21:38.

Perpetual runner-up Daito Bunka was over two and a half minutes behind by the end of the race, taking 2nd yet again in 2:24:16. Former dynastic power Ritsumeikan University was solid throughout, taking 3rd in 2:27:00. After stage wins on the First and Third Stages, Nittai held steady around 4th until anchor Akari Nakamura ran into trouble on the steepest climb in the final third of the stage. Matsuyama University, Osaka Gakuin University and Josai University all took advantage of the situation to knock Nittai back to 7th on the 8-deep podium, all three finishing within a minute of Ritsumeikan.

Strong early on, Kansai University rounded out the podium almost eight minutes behind Meijo in 2:29:19. In just its second Mount Fuji appearance Fukuoka University was the first team to miss a podium finish, taking 9th in 2:30:16. With no National Women's Ekiden in January, for most runners in the field this was the last ekiden of the season. A few more chances to race remain on the calendar until the end of the academic year in March, including January's Kitakyushu Invitational Women's Ekiden. Japan's corona numbers are going up quickly, but if that and other races go ahead you can expect to see Suzuki, Kaseda, Kobayashi and others at least once more before the season wraps for good.

2020 Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden

University Women's National Championships Invitational

Shizuoka, 30 Dec. 2020

21 teams, 7 stages, 43.4 km

complete results

Top Team Results

1. Meijo University - 2:21:38 - CR

2. Daito Bunka University - 2:24:16

3. Ritsumeikan University - 2:27:00

4. Matsuyama University - 2:27:42

5. Osaka Gakuin University - 2:27:53

6. Josai University - 2:27:59

7. Nittai University - 2:28:21

8. Kansai University - 2:29:19

----- 8-deep podium

9. Fukuoka University - 2:30:16

10. Kansai Gaikokugo University - 2:30:51

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (4.1 km) - Karin Akahori (Nittai Univ.) - 13:04

Second Stage (6.8 km) - Yuna Wada (Meijo Univ.) - 20:40 - CR tie

Third Stage (3.3 km) - Haruko Hosaka (Nittai Univ.) / Sae Hanada (Juntendo Univ.) - 10:22

Fourth Stage (4.4 km) - Yuma Yamamoto (Meijo Univ.) - 13:55 - CR tie

Fifth Stage (10.5 km) - Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 34:29

Sixth Stage (6.0 km) - Yuka Masubuchi (Meijo Univ.) - 19:31 - CR

Seventh Stage (8.3 km, ~130 m uphill) - Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) - 28:26 - CR

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer. These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly. I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes. As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway. That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...

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