Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden Preview

Wednesday is the first day of the best five-day stretch of racing in Japan, the top women's university teams in the country racing in the foothills of Mt. Fuji at the season-ending Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden national championships. After that it's a day off for New Year's Eve, then 2021 kicks off with the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships and hits its peak with the year's biggest race, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden.

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that two-time defending Mount Fuji champ Meijo University is going to make it three in a row. In October Meijo broke its own record for the 38.1 km course to win the national-level Morinomiyako Ekiden by almost three minutes over Daito Bunka University. Since then it's only gotten stronger, with 3rd-year Yuna Wada running the fastest collegiate 5000 m time of the year, 15:25.14, and 4th-year Rika Kaseda clocking both the second-fastest 5000 m time, 15:32.77, and the fastest collegiate 10000 m time, 31:39.86. With 2nd-year Narumi Kobayashi already holding the second-fastest 10000 m time of the year, 32:08.67, and 3rd-year Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu to back them, that's an almost unbeatable core lineup for the seven-stage Mount Fuji course. To be sure, the hilliness of the Mount Fuji course demands a different skill set than the flatter one at Morinomiyako, but with a 76-second winning margin over Daito Bunka last year and a stronger team this year Meijo pretty much has it covered, barring something dramatic.

Daito Bunka is still the fastest among the other 20 teams in the Mount Fuji field, 3rd-year Yuka Suzuki the third-best collegiate 10000 m runner of the year at 32:11.66 and 2nd-year Reimi Yoshimura continuing to develop as one of the country's best steeplers. But grad student Natsuki Sekiya has been struggling this season, leaving Daito Bunka potentially vulnerable to the competition.

Nittai University is the biggest threat to Daito Bunka's chances, just 23 seconds behind at Morinomiyako. The once-unstoppable Ritsumeikan University is a little further out of range, finishing just over a minute behind Daito Bunka in the same race, but with the different demands at Mount Fuji it could close that deficit up, especially if Sekiya is still below her best. Osaka Geijutsu University has scratched, an inevitability as the race takes place in the midst of rocketing infection numbers across Japan.

Fuji TV will be broadcasting the race live starting at 9:50 a.m. on Dec. 30 local time. There doesn't look to be an official live stream, but if you're not in Japan options like mov3.co, iTVer, and TVJapanLive might work. Unofficial streams tend to pop up on Youtube once the race gets underway. We'll be doing English commentary on @JRNLive as usual, and will tweet Youtube links if streams turn up.

2020 Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden Entry List

University Women's National Championships Invitational

30 Dec. 2020

21 teams, 7 stages, 43.4 km

complete entry lists

1. Meijo University (Tokai region)

2. Daito Bunka University (Kanto region)

3. Nittai University (Kanto region)

4. Ritsumeikan University (Kansai region)

5. Kansai University (Kansai region)

6. Osaka Gakuin University (Kansai region)

7. Josai University (Kanto region)

8. Matsuyama University (Chugoku/Shikoku region)

9. Takushoku University (Kanto region)

10. Kyoto Sangyo University (Kansai region)

11. Juntendo University (Kanto region)

12. Kyoto Koka Joshi University (Kansai region)

14. Toyo University (Kanto region)

15. Bukkyo University (Kansai region)

16. Tokyo Nogyo University (Kanto region)

17. Fukuoka University (Kyushu region)

18. Kansai Gaikokugo University (Kansai region)

19. Tamagawa University (Kanto region)

20. Kobe Gakuin University (Kansai region)

21. Chuo University (Kanto region)

22. Tohoku Fukushi University (Tohoku region)

DNS - Osaka Geijutsu University (Kansai region)

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

Shiojiri, Kasai and Tazawa Scratch from Hachioji Long Distance, 5000 m Dropped from Program (updated)

On Nov. 15 the East Japan Corporate Federation announced that 10000 m national champion and Paris Olympian Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) and Budapest World Championships team member Ren Tazawa (Toyota) have both withdrawn from the 10000 m at the Nov. 23 Hachioji Long Distance meet. This year's Hachioji Long Distance features a special heat set up to target the 27:00.00 qualifying standard for next year's Tokyo World Championships. Along with Kasai and Tazawa, national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) and other top-level Japanese talent are scheduled to compete. After last January's New Year Ekiden , Tazawa sustained an injury that forced him to miss May's National Championships 10000 m and other races including the Paris Olympics. At the end of September he ran 13:36.99 for 5th at the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup meet, but, he said, "My balance felt off and the back of my left knee hurt." In Kasai's case, after winning the national title in M

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