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.

10000 m National Championships Preview

Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading

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