Skip to main content

Saku Chosei H.S. Wins First Okukuma Ekiden

A new event bringing together top high school, college, corporate league and club men's teams, the Okukuma Ekiden was held for the first time Sunday in Kumamoto. 42.195 km split into 7 stages for the high school boys' division and 4 stages for the others, the race saw Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. become the first team across its finish line in 2:07:16. The Toyota Kyushu corporate team was 2nd overall in 2:07:32, with local Kyushu Gakuin H.S. 3rd in 2:07:52.

The new ekiden, which mirrors the format of the Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden, was originally scheduled to have taken place in 2020. But after two years of pandemic-era cancelations, the inaugural running didn't take place until this year. It was an impressive success. The high school boys' stage lengths were almost the same as those at December's National High School Ekiden, 10 km, 3 km, 8.25 km, 7.9 km, 3 km, 5 km, and 5.045 km. Other divisions ran stages 10 km, 11.25 km, 10.9 km, and 10.045 km, all but the first combining pairs of stages from the high school course. All divisions started together and competed head-to-head.

2022 Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University fielded two teams. Its B-team was 7th overall in 2:09:44, good for the top university position, with its A-team 19th in 2:12:27. Coach Susumu Hara commented, "The athletes gained valuable ekiden experience here, like tactics and shifting pace. It was worthwhile." Part of AGU's lineup for the Oct. 10 Izumo Ekiden, team captain Taiki Miyasaka and Akimu Nomura handled the first stage for the two squads. Nomura ran well, 3rd in 29:55, while Miyasaka struggled home in 31:42 for 18th. "Nomura passed the test," said Hara. "There's a good chance he'll get to make his Big Three University Ekidens debut at the Izumo Ekiden. Miyasaka worked hard all summer in training and is tired."

Other team AGU members ran well despite not being on the roster for Izumo. Takato Azechi was 2nd on the 4th stage and Genta Kuramoto 2nd on the 3rd stage. "In the three and a half years since he came to AGU Azechi has been training without injury, gradually getting stronger and stronger," said Hara. "His birthday is Jan. 3, so there's a chance he'll be the one to get to break the finish tape on the anchor stage at the Hakone Ekiden. Kuramoto ran well when he was at Sera H.S. and showed us today that he's a good ekiden runner." The competition for the runners in AGU's massive program to be part of its Hakone starting lineup keeps getting tougher.

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Rigajags said…
This race seems interesting, wonder if i will manage to find some footage.

Izumo is almost upon us, i don't know if there is any entry list anywhere already
September 27, 2022 at 7:22 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...
Post a Comment
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...
4 comments
Read more