Toyota Boshoku, YKK, SGH and Chudenko Win Final New Year Ekiden Qualifying Races

Qualification for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships wrapped up Sunday with the last four regional corporate ekidens. In the highly competitive Chubu Region race, Toyota, the winner the last 7 years, struggled when Bedan Karoki finished only 8th on the Second Stage. Despite Toyota's fourth runner Tomoki Ota making up a lot of the ground with a sensational 43:48 CR on his 15.5 km stage, almost a minute under the old record and 45:18 pace for 10 miles, Toyota faced pressure throughout the race from Toyota Boshoku. A 34:07 course record for the 11.8 km Seventh Stage by anchor Yuji Onoda was enough to seal the win for Toyota Boshoku, finishing the 80.5 km race 39 seconds up on Toyota in 3:54:15.

Aichi Seiko was the top team to miss the qualifying cutoff, almost two minutes behind the last qualifier, Chuo Hatsujo, in 3:59:13. Held simultaneously with the Chubu Region race, the Hokuriku Region saw an even closer margin of victory, with perpetual Hokuriku leader YKK holding off Sekino Kosan by just 26 seconds in 3:59:10.

In the Kansai Region race, SGH runners won four of the seven stages including a 26:41 CR on the 9.5 km Fourth Stage by Naoki Chiba. That was enough to give SGH the overall win in a course record 3:55:00 for 80.45 km. The Osaka Police outran Osaka Gas by 30 seconds for the final qualifying spot in 3:58:48, thanks in part to a win on the opening leg by officer Akihito Eishin.

In the Chugoku Region, Chudenko had a strong overall team performance to win in 4:01:43 for 80.8 km, only one of its runners, Amos Kurgat, winning his stage but all but one of the rest finishing in the top 3. The minor Hoshizaki team gave Takeda Yakuhin a scare in the race for the final qualifying spot, but ultimately Takeda emerged the stronger, finishing 5th in 4:19:46 by just over 2 minutes over Hoshizaki.

With the field now set for the New Year Ekiden the attention turns to the major tuneup events. For many that will be the Nov. 27 Hachioji Long Distance meet focusing on 10000 m. The Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, originally scheduled for Dec. 5, would normally be another major tuneup, but this year it's again among the events canceled due to pandemic fears. Some will line up in the final Fukuoka International Marathon on Dec. 5, attempting a quick turnaround in time for the New Year just under four weeks later.

Measuring Marathon Courses by Bicycle

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0110&f=column_0110_034.shtml translated by Brett Larner The full marathon is a sport where you compete over 42.195 km, but how do they go about measuring that distance? Today we're going to look a little bit at how they go about certifying the distance of a marathon. The reality is that major international marathons use a bicycle to measure the distance. This rule is an international standard, and the same method of measurement is used everywhere. It was put into place in 1986. In order to ensure that the same method is used everywhere, a bicycle that meets IAAF specifications must be used for measurement. In the case of Japan's major marathons, to be certain that the distance is correct a provisional measurement is first made. Before the course is certified using a bicycle the course is measured using a 50 m-long length of wire to determine that it is in fact 42.195 km. When a bicycle is u...

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

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