The 2021 race had one of the most dramatic finishes in Hakone history, with Komazawa University anchor Takuma Ishikawa coming from over a kilometer behind to run down Yuki Onodera with 2 km to go and stop him from bringing Soka University home to its first-ever Hakone win. Both were 3rd-years, and it's one sad detail of the 2022 race that neither will be back for a senior year rematch, Ishikawa having been arrested a few months after the race and no longer running for Komazawa, and Onodera missing from Soka's entry list.
The pandemic has had a major impact on Hakone and the collegiate men's development system. Given the average stage length of 21.71 km, the half marathon has long been the major focus of Japanese collegiate training, something that has contributed directly to the depth of the country's marathoning and results like what we saw in Lake Biwa this year. During the pandemic most of the major races on the collegiate half marathon circuit haven't happened, and that's led to a refocusing on track racing. It's easy to see that in this year's Hakone entry lists.
Looking at the average PBs of the 10 fastest runners on each team, out of the 19 teams that raced Hakone last year and are back this year, 17 have gotten faster over 5000 m since last year, 17 faster over 10000 m, and 14 slower over the half marathon. It couldn't be clearer: out of necessity, coaches have shifted focus from the half marathon to the 5000 m and 10000 m, and the level at those distances has come way up. 12 of the 21 teams have a 10-man average 5000 m time under 14 minutes, 16 have a 10000 m average under 29 minutes, and only 2 have a half-marathon average under 63 minutes. Even last year, when the lack of half marathons was already an issue, it was nowhere near that, with 8 teams sub-14, 10 sub-29, and 5 sub-63. 16 teams have at least one runner 28:10 or faster for 10000 m. 12 have someone 13:40 or better for 5000 m. Only 5 have someone under 62 minutes for the half. Shoes are no doubt part of it, but given the decline in the half marathon they're not the whole story. It'd be interesting to speculate what kind of impact this is going to have on the next generation of marathoners, and what would happen if the focus shifted further to 1500 m and 5000 m.
At any rate, the shift that has happened makes the job of ranking teams harder. Defending champ Komazawa has the best 5000 m and 10000 m 10-man averages, 13:41.71 and 28:24.64, but almost nobody on the team has run a serious half marathon. 2nd-tier teams that had to run October's Yosenkai qualifier half marathon have quality half marathon times on the books and look better on paper relative to top-tier teams like Komazawa than they probably really are. Other teams like last year's 3rd-placer Toyo University publicized that they were doing a half marathon time trial in place of November's Ageo City Half Marathon but didn't publicize the results, leaving them way farther down the rankings than they should be. We've tweaked our rankings formula to try to account for all this, but as with last year you can be sure that there's more unpredictability than usual.
Aoyama Gakuin University has won Hakone 5 of the last 7 years and is the favorite. 2nd at both the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, AGU is one of only 3 teams in the field to be better over 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon than it was last year, when it was 4th at Hakone, and one of only two with sub-14, sub-29 and sub-63 10-man averages. Two weeks after the National University Ekiden it had 6 people total under 63 minutes in two half marathons, so whatever it lacked at the shorter ekidens you can be sure AGU's head coach Susumu Hara isn't letting the team's stamina slide.
AGU's two strongest competitors on paper are this year's and last year's Yosenkai qualifier winners Meiji University and Juntendo University. But it's one thing to win the qualifier, making you the #11 team in the Hakone field, and something else to go for the overall win. Meiji has a history of not performing well at Hakone, and last year Juntendo struggled in part because star 1st-year Ryuji Miura had suffered an injury while training for the National Championships 3000 mSC a month before Hakone. Running up to potential would put either into contention, but as Soka head coach Kazutaka Enoki said right after last year's loss, "It's not that easy."
Komazawa, Tokyo Kokusai University and Toyo could all be up at this level despite being ranked further down the field due to their lack of experience with the half marathon. Komazawa's trending in that direction after finishing 5th at Izumo and then winning the longer Nationals, while TKU and Toyo are the opposite, TKU winning Izumo and taking 5th at Nationals, and Toyo going 3rd and 10th. The most likely scenario for TKU is to stack the first three stages with its top 3 Vincent Yegon, Masaya Yamatani and Ken Tansho to build up a big Day One lead and then try to hang on through Day Two like Soka attempted last year. That would set up a potential duel between Yegon and Komazawa's Ren Tazawa, maybe with Miura, the 3000 mSC NR holder, 7th in the steeple final at the Tokyo Olympics, and the U20 half marathon NR holder, in the mix. Given that Tazawa beat 2021 Hakone MVP Yegon over 10000 m earlier this month, it would be one of the highlights of this year's race.
With all those teams capable of finishing in the top 6, the race to get into the top 10 and score a guaranteed place at the 2023 Hakone and a trip to the 2022 Izumo Ekiden will be a tough one. 2nd at the Yosenkai qualifier the last two years, Chuo University isn't far off the top tier but couldn't translate that to success last year. The Kanto Region Student Alliance team, made up of top-placing individuals at the Yosenkai from teams that don't qualify and which doesn't count in team scoring, and Waseda Universtiy, featuring sub-28 trio Yuhi Nakaya, Naoki Ota and Ryuto Igawa, are another step behind Chuo.
Excluding Komazawa there's not much difference between the next 9 teams after Waseda, taking the list of solid contenders for top 10 to 17. Given its performance last year Soka is the best bet to finish higher than expected. 2019 Hakone winner Tokai University seems strangely down on its luck this year, finishing 9th at Izumo and 12th at Nationals, and missing last year's Third Stage winner Shotaro Ishikawa from its entry roster.
As above, TKU and Toyo should place higher than their ranking would suggest but are unpredictable due to their lack of available half marathon times. Toyo will have former H.S. 5000 m NR holder Kosuke Ishida making his Hakone debut, one of the other highlights to watch for. Teikyo University is in the same situation as TKU and Toyo, and given a stable history at Hakone it should probably be included among the contenders for top 10. That leaves only the debuting Surugadai University and bottom-ranked Senshu University on the list of non-contenders, making for what could be one of the most competitive Hakones in memory.
One of the things that NTV does so well on its broadcast, especially on Day Two, is to cover multiple plot lines. With so many good teams this year there should be a lot of turnover around the dividing line between 10th and 11th keeping their production crew busy. Things can get complicated if the leading team gets too far ahead, so in prep for the race take a few minutes to read this guide to understanding elements of the ekiden format like white sash starts and race strategy. See you at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning.
Comments
I still think that despite the lack of half marathons times Komazawa will be the team fighting it out with AGU for 1st place. They have too much of a talented roster with Suzuki, Tazawa, Karasawa and even first year Sato being impressive at the Izumo Ekiden.
With their experienced coach I think they'll be prepared.
Juntendo has a very good top 3 in terms of half marathon and so is the case for many other teams like you pointed out and described. So yes it might come down to the bottom 7 of each team roster to keep their teams in the race as much as possible to exploit their aces.
In terms of aces Kokusai has an impressive front as well.
Guys that I'm looking forward the most to are the obvious ones: Yegon, Tazawa, Miura are likely the top 3.
Mebuki Suzuki, Tansho, Ito, Yoshii, Kurihara are others of supreme interest.
One to watch is definitely 1st year Kosuke Ishida of Toyo. Beside his elite past in high school he has been impressive both at the Izumo Ekiden (won his stage) and at the Nationals Ekiden where he tied the stage record.
What is great like you said is that it will be super uncertain. So many teams can surprise us, just like Soka did last year.
I really hope I'll manage to watch as much as possible live (unfortunately in Italy the race starts right at 1.00 am) or to be able to find it on youtube the day after...I would really love to live the Hakone Ekiden magic in its full.
Thanks a lot for this article, was a great read. Enjoy Hakone all of you!
If nothing has changed (and likely won't be his call which stage to run) and he will run the 4th it can be reasonable that Kokusai could try and hope in a slow 1st stage that keeps the group balanced, putting Tansho in the second stage, maybe Yamatani in the third and have Yegon trying to create a break on the 4th before the uphill. I don't know which specialist they'd have there but it could be a nice strategy to take a first day lead.
Having Yegon running the 1st stage like Brett suggested in another article could be great and would definitely break the field in a completely unexpected way (unless they all ignore him and just keep their pace) but having him running in the 4th could maximize their chances given that at worst he could be able to catch up the leaders (unless Komazawa puts their heavyweights early).
I also think that some outsider team could surprise everyone right from the 1st day like Soka did last year.
I just hope teams' aces will have a chance to fight it out on some competitive stage and won't be too scattered here and there. (Juntendo should definitely try and put Miura on a stage where runners aren't too scattered, I think right now he is better when needs to catch up or has a competitive head to head match up then when the pace is a bit slower and he just waits for the final kick -which is world class in his case- to make a difference. I really hope he can challenge a stage record).
Well, sorry, I can't wait haha!
When do teams usually publish their starting roaster, as in who runs which leg? It seems like it’s a strategic decision for the coach: do they have to submit by a certain date, can they adjust once they see the other team roasters…or is it a last minute surprise?
Coaches don't have to declare alternate swaps until race morning, so a lot of coaches will keep their best guys as alternates and not put them in until they've seen what others are doing. For example, Waseda has one of its 27-min guys, Ota, declared for 3rd Stage, but its other two Nakaya and Igawa are alternates. One of them will definitely be swapped in for the 29:33 guy listed for 2nd Stage. The other will probably go on 1st but maybe 5th or Day 2. Once they've been declared for a stage it can't be changed, so Ota has to run 3rd or not at all. Waseda's other 4 alternates are all their best 2nd-tier guys, so expect a lot of other swaps with the 29:30~40 guys in the initial listing.
Have a great Hakone Ekiden experience all of you guys, looking forward to commenting with you over the next few days!
Wow some teams really played with the alternates.
Komazawa seems to have chosen a strong start. No way they leave that 8th stager and anchor both in the second half, they'll make Mebuki Suzuki fill in at either spot.
I hope they leave Sato at the 3rd stage, this guy is a first year who had a great first ekiden in the autumn.
Toyo listed Kosuke Ishida as alternate. The 2nd stage has "slow" times, I wonder if they throw him to the wolves in the second stage at his first ekiden. A bit too much to ask maybe?
The second stage appears already loaded: Tazawa, Yegon, Mulwa, Oniego, Raimoi, Bunuka, Kamata andpossibly Kyioto Suzuki, Miura...putting Ishida there would be a massive test for the rookie.
Juntendo strikes me as the team who has been playing the most with the alternates. Other than Miura they have some of their big names as altenates and guys who are much slower on paper in several section. I really doubt they leave the downhill run at a rookie with not many official times available.
In addition to the 6th stage they put slow runners on 2nd stage, 5th, and 7th stage. Both 8th and 9th stage runners have slower times than all the other alternates (who have very good half marathon times on paper thanks to the 2020 Yosenkai) as well.
Juntendo is very difficult to read.
I think Miura could do amazing with that competitive field in the 2nd stage. But what if they go with someone like Yoshioka or Nomura there (both very good half marathon runners), try to limit damage, have a specialist on the 5th and put the best alternates together with Miura on the return trip?
Having Miura in the 9th stage and right before him putting 2 of their 1:02:30 half marathon alternates in the 7th/8th could see them taking a big jump in day 2. Though maybe they don't want to have Miura running too much alone and prefer having him playing catch up on day 1.
Both strategies are intriguing. To play it sort of safer they could try and put him in the second and see if he can keep pace with Yegon. If he does or can follow him for most of the stage they could build up a very good lead.
My apologies if I focused so much on Juntendo but there's simply too much of a gap from the stage entries they put in some key stages and their alternates.
I think it's a key decision on if Juntendo will play a role or not.(and at the end of the day what will make or break them will be the 5th and 6th stage specialists as it's a complete unknown right now)
On one hand you have Komazawa who has put their presumably best runners on day 1 and will try to make a break early (just like Kokusai). On the other hand Aoyama has strong guys overall and very good day 2 depth.
So many great plotlines and so difficult to plan the correct strategy with so many variables.