Honda Wins First-Ever New Year Ekiden National Title

With a young team all aged from 20 to 25 but including two Olympians and a 2:06:26 marathoner, Honda won its first-ever New Year Ekiden corporate men's national title Jan. 1 in Gunma. 

Off to a slow start on the 7-stage, 100.0 km course, Honda went from 13th to 23rd in the field of 37 over the first two legs before third runner Naoki Koyama turned things around. With a strong tailwind that pushed the top 7 on his stage under the older course record, Koyama was 8th-fastest in 37:40 for 13.6 km to take Honda up to 14th. Tokyo Olympics 10000 m runner Tatsuhiko Ito handled the race's longest stage, 22.4 km, and with a 1:04:15 putting him at 5th-fastest Ito advanced Honda to 5th overall.

Olympic 3000 mSC team member Ryoma Aoki ran the 2nd-fastest time on the 15.8 km Fifth Stage, surviving a turn into the wind to take Honda to 3rd and setting up sixth man Ken Nakayama to go for the top position. Initially working together with Tsukasa Koyama (Subaru) to close the gap to leader Ryoto Yoshioka (Mitsubishi Juko) while battling strong headwinds, Nakayama dropped Koyama just after halfway. He caught Yoshioka before 13.5 km, and with the fastest time on the stage handed off to anchor Hidekazu Hijikata 16 seconds up on Subaru.

A 2:06:26 marathoner, Hijikata stayed calm as Subaru anchor Ryo Kuchimachi closed on him, but when Kuchimachi got within 5 seconds he turned it on. Pulling away, he brought Honda home to its first national title in 4:51:04 for the complete 100 km course. Absent from the winning lineup was Honda's most well-known member, former half marathon and marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara, who dropped out mid-race at the final Fukuoka International Marathon last month. Post-race Nakayama said he was inspired by the way defending champ Fujitsu's Kengo Suzuki ran the last part of his marathon national record at Lake Biwa last year, and in that you can see the generational divide. The man who broke Shitara's marathon NR, Suguru Osako, has already retired, and things are moving on from Shitara and the others his age as younger athletes break newer ground and inspire the even younger ones.

Subaru hung on to 2nd just over a minute behind, having been put into position by a stage win from new Kenyan recruit Benson Kiplangat early in the race. Overall course record holder Asahi Kasei anchor Shuho Dairokuno outkicked Mitsubishi Juko's Toshiki Sadakata for 3rd after running the entire stage together, payback for Sadakata having beaten him in Fukuoka. Asahi Kasei's 10000 m NR holder Akira Aizawa had a stellar New Year Ekiden debut, riding the wind to a sub-27 split for 10 km en route to a 37:09 CR for the 13.6 km Third Stage.

Missing Kenyan great Bedan Karoki, Toyota still turned in a quality performance for an all-Japanese lineup at 5th in 4:54:08 despite Olympic marathoner Yuma Hattori showing signs that he hasn't fully recovered from the damage done at the Olympics. Toyota's third runner Tomoki Ota wrapped a great season, like Aizawa splitting under 27 minutes and breaking the stage record.

In good position after a 1:03:43 CR on the 22.4 km Fourth Stage by Fukuoka runner-up Kyohei Hosoya, Kurosaki Harima held off a fast-closing quartet in a sprint finish to make the 8-deep podium, taking 6th by 2 seconds over SGH Group and with Toyota Kyushu another second behind in 8th. GMO was 9th in 4:54:58, enigmatically the identical place and time it ran last year. Hitachi Butsuryu dropped off in the final kick for 10th in 4:55:05.

2021 winner Fujitsu was a wreck, dropping from 3rd on the opening leg to 20th on the Second Stage, never better than 11th after that, and ultimately finishing only 12th. You have to wonder whether their focus was broken by the scandal last month around them having lost the champion's pennant that had been used since the first New Year Ekiden in the 1950s. Like Toyota's Hattori, Fujitsu Olympic marathoner Shogo Nakamura didn't seen to be fully recovered, running like his old self over the first two-thirds of the stage but fading dramatically. Their Olympic teammate Osako is already retired, but let's hope that there's still time for both Hattori and Nakamura to get back to where they were at the height of their powers at the 2019 MGC Race Olympic marathon trials.

2022 New Year Ekiden

66th Corporate Men's National Championships
Maebashi, Gunma, 01 Jan. 2022
37 teams, 7 stages, 100.0 km
complete results

Top Team Results
1. Honda - 4:51:04

2. Subaru - 4:52:09

3. Asahi Kasei - 4:52:47

4. Mitsubishi Juko - 4:52:49

5. Toyota - 4:54:08

6. Kurosaki Harima - 4:54:50

7. SGH Group - 4:54:52

8. Toyota Kyushu - 4:54:53

----- eight-deep podium

9. GMO - 4:54:58

10. Hitachi Butsuryu - 4:55:05

11. Toyota Boshoku - 4:55:19

12. Fujitsu - 4:56:36

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (12.3 km)
1. Shoma Funatsu (Kyudenko) - 34:41

2. Shingo Moriyama (YKK) - 34:44

3. Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) - 34:44

Second Stage (8.3 km)
1. Benson Kiplangat (Subaru) - 22:03

2. Kiprono Sitonik (Komori Corp.) - 22:15

3. Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) - 22:16

Third Stage (13.6 km)
1. Akira Aizawa (Asahi Kasei) - 37:09 - CR

2. Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 37:16 (CR)

3. Hiroto Hayashida (Mitsubishi Juko) - 37:17 (CR)

Fourth Stage (22.4 km)
1. Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima) - 1:03:43 - CR

2. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 1:03:54 (CR)

3. Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) - 1:04:12

3. Hiroto Fujimagari (Toyota Kyushu) - 1:04:12

Fifth Stage (15.8 km)
1. Chihiro Ono (Asahi Kasei) - 47:46

2. Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 47:50

3. Akihito Terui (Subaru) - 48:06

Sixth Stage (12.1 km)
1. Ken Nakayama (Honda) - 36:27

2. Tsukasa Koyama (Subaru) - 36:54

3. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei) - 36:56

3. Yohei Suzuki (Aisan Kogyo) - 36:56

Seventh Stage (15.5 km)
1. Hidekazu Hijikata (Honda) - 46:36

2. Shuto Mikami (SGH Group) - 47:21

3. Ryo Kuchimachi (Subaru) - 47:25

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved