Takigahara SDF Base Wins Mt. Fuji Ekiden Again

Along with Akita's Towada Hachimantai Ekiden another midsummer classic returned Sunday after cancelations in 2020 and 2021, the 47th edition of the Mt. Fuji Ekiden. An eleven-stage race featuring 82 teams of six, the Mt. Fuji Ekiden sees the first five runners on each team work their way up the slopes of Mt. Fuji, first on roads and then on trails. The sixth runners climbs the final few kilometers to the summit 3258 m above the race's starting point, has his tasuki sash stamped by a priest at the shrine waiting there, then begins the descent.

The first five runners then have to each a second time, downhill this time. Some of the downhill stages are wild, with powdery gravel covering steep slopes, and scenes like this one from 2014 at the exchange from the Seventh to Eighth Stage, are legendary. Spectators make the climb to the exchange zones just to see it happen. Doesn't it look like fun?

The video up top is from the last edition in 2019, when the Takigahara SDF Base scored a fifth-straight win. When the city of Gotemba uploads a highlights video from this year it'll be added, but what you'll see is a double threepeat from Takigahara, with the unstoppable base team covering the full 48.19 km roundtrip course in 3:45:56 to the top position for the sixth time in a row. Military teams went 1st through 6th, the top club team being 2019's top club the Shimizu Running Club at 7th in 4:05:44.

Average pace per km for stage winners went as slow as 10:19/km on the ascent and as fast as 2:07/km on the descending version of the same stage. Former Aoyama Gakuin University star Yuhi Akiyama (Top Gear), Toru Miyahara (Takigahara SDF Base), Hitoshi Okuhira (Kokubun SDF Base) and Toshihiro Hayashi (Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment) came close, but this year nobody pulled off the holy grail Mt. Fuji double of winning both their uphill and downhill stages. Complete results from the SDF base division are here, with club team results here.

You hate to overuse the word iconic, but what could be more iconic than an ekiden up and down Mt. Fuji? It's almost a given that the organizers don't think that way, but this seems like a race that would be a prime choice for a top international team that wanted to come and give an ekiden a go. Maybe next year, or three years down the road at the 50th.

47th Mt. Fuji Ekiden

Mt. Fuji, 7 Aug. 2022

11 stages, 48.19 km, 3258 m ascent/3199 m descent, 82 teams, 6 runners per team

complete results

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (6.54 km, 243 m ascent)

Yuhi Akiyama (Top Gear) - 20:55 (3:12/km)

Second Stage (4.64 km, 345 m ascent)

Shota Kobayashi (Takigahara SDF Base) - 18:21 (3:57/km)

Third Stage (4.54 km, 371 m ascent)

Yoshiyuki Hara (Takigahara SDF Base) - 18:24 (4:03/km)

Fourth Stage (2.84 km, 664 m ascent)

Tatsuya Itagaki (Kannami RC) - 26:35 (9:22/km)

Fifth Stage (4.24 km, 1017 m ascent)

Toru Miyahara (Takigahara SDF Base) - 43:45 (10:19km)

Sixth Stage (4.92 km, 618 m ascent to summit, 618 m descent)

Ryuichi Sato (Rumoi SDF Base) - 41:20 (8:24/km)

Seventh Stage (3.66 km, 1017 m descent)

Tomoki Ito (18th Infantry Regiment) - 7:45 (2:07/km)

Eighth Stage (2.59 km, 664 m descent)

Ryota Yuzawa (Takigahara SDF Base) - 6:38 (2:34/km)

Ninth Stage (4.44 km, 371 m descent)

Hitoshi Okuhira (Kokubun SDF Base) - 11:48 (2:39/km)

Tenth Stage (4.64 km, 345 m descent)

Yoshiki Murase (2nd Infantry Regiment) - 11:55 (2:34/km)

Eleventh Stage (4.88 km, 184 m descent)

Toshihiro Hayashi (Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment) - 15:37 (3:12/km)

Top Team Results

1. Takigahara SDF Base - 3:45:56

2. 2nd Infantry Regiment - 3:58:00

3. Rumoi SDF Base - 3:58:48

4. Kokubun SDF Base - 4:01:11

5. 1st Airborne Brigade - 4:02:16

6. Nerima 1st Infantry Regiment - 4:04:27

7. Shimizu Running Club - 4:05:44

8. Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment - 4:10:36

9. Team Kibidango - 4:12:26

10. Hachioji Fujimori Running Club - 4:15:02

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

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

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

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