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

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Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...

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by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer. These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly. I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes. As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway. That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...

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