Up front, Panasonic anchor Sora Shinozakura pulled off a brilliant last-second come-from-behind win to take 1st in 2:18:06. Panasonic was never out of the top 4, 2nd runner Nanami Watanabe taking the lead before the team dropped back again. Shinozakura started the 6.695 km anchor leg in 3rd, 24 seconds behind leader Momoka Hanafusa of the Kyudenko team, and steadily cut down the distance to 1st. It looked like she might run out of road before she got there, but with a hard surge from 400 m out she flew past Hanafusa to take the win by 6 seconds. Hanafusa was in that position thanks to a CR 34:02 from teammate Wakana Itsuki on the 10.4 km Fifth Leg, and with the 4th-fastest time on the anchor stage it wasn't like she was a non-factor. Shinozakura was just in a different class.
Tenmaya was 3rd in 2:18:45, with Olympic marathoner Honami Maeda making a good comeback from corona on the anchor stage where she was 3rd-fastest. Daiichi Seimei was 4th, 3rd runner Haruka Kokai running the fastest time on the longest leg, the 10.7 km Third Stage, to move into 1st and 4th runner Hanae Tanaka holding on. Daiso was 5th in 2:20:07 thanks in big part to Muthoni, who was just 3 seconds slower than her own CR on the 3.8 km Third Stage in 11:28. Toyota Jidoshokki started in the lead with a 22:56 stage win on the 7.0 km opening leg from Momoka Kawaguchi before falling to 12th.
With 16 qualifying spots the race down around that cutoff was tense and exciting over the last three stages. 16th after the Fourth Stage, Hitachi was repeatedly passed and knocked back to 17th over the last two stages only to overtake other teams and claw its way back into 16th. Nitori anchor Kyoka Sugano started 8 seconds back from Hitachi's Mei Sasaki in 17th and quickly made up 2 seconds, but when she stalled after that quick start the 16 qualifiers looked settled. But in an ekiden it's really never over til it's over.
Toughest part to watch at today’s Princess Ekiden: With 16 qualifying spots for the National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Mei Shirai was in 15th w/1k to go when she fell. Unable to get up, her team Kyocera was a DNF.
— Japan Running News (@JRNLive) October 23, 2022
More: https://t.co/PSwmHEbSBn pic.twitter.com/m6MhaJKx2E
Running safely in 15th just ahead of Sasaki, Kyocera anchor Mei Shirai was just about to overtake Route Inn Hotels and Shimamura in 13th and 14th with about a km to go. Then, the unexpected struck. Shirai suddenly stumbled and fell. On replay it looked like she somehow lost her balance, twisted her left ankle and fell, landing full force on the pavement on one of her knees. She immediately curled up and held the knee, never moving as first Hitachi, then Higo Ginko, then team after team went by. Thankfully she didn't try to crawl her way to the finish so the team wouldn't DNF, an indication of how serious the situation was. Taken to a hospital for examination, Shirai was found to have suffered a fracture of her left femur.
With Shirai's bad luck knocking Kyocera out of the race Higo Ginko unexpectedly pulled out the final qualifying spot. They and the other 15 teams will now join the 8 auto-qualifiers in Sendai on Nov. 27 for the Queen's Ekiden, the stage name for the National Corporate Women's Ekiden.
8th Princess Ekiden
National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier
Munakata, Fukuoka, 23 Oct. 2022
31 teams, 6 stages, 42.195 km
top 16 teams qualify for National Corporate Women's Ekiden
Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (7.0 km)
1. Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 22:56
2. Rei Ohara (Tenmaya) - 22:57
3. Maki Izumida (Daiichi Seimei) - 22:58
Second Stage (3.6 km)
1. Nanami Watanabe (Panasonic) - 11:15
2. Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo) - 11:31
3. Hibiki Sakurazawa (Daiichi Seimei) - 11:34
Third Stage (10.7 km)
1. Haruka Kokai (Daiichi Seimei) - 34:47
2. Minami Yamanouchi (Shimamura) - 35:00
3. Honoka Tanaike (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 35:04
Fourth Stage (3.8 km)
1. Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) - 11:28
2. Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) - 11:33
3. Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) - 11:39
Fifth Stage (10.4 km)
1. Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko) - 34:02 - CR
2. Kaori Morita (Panasonic) - 34:24
3. Momoko Watanabe (Tenmaya) - 34:45
Sixth Stage (6.695 km)
1. Sora Shinozakura (Panasonic) - 21:25
2. Misaki Kato (Daiso) - 21:38
3. Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) - 21:47
Team Results
1. Panasonic - 2:18:06
2. Kyudenko - 2:18:12
3. Tenmaya - 2:18:45
4. Daiichi Seimei - 2:19:09
5. Daiso - 2:20:07
6. Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo - 2:20:18
7. Iwatani Sangyo - 2:20:23
8. Otsuka Seigaku - 2:20:59
9. Uniqlo - 2:21:07
10. Edion - 2:21:10
11. Starts - 2:21:11
12. Toyota Jidoshokki - 2:21:13
13. Route Inn Hotels - 2:21:36
14. Shimamura - 2:21:40
15. Hitachi - 2:22:06
16. Higo Ginko - 2:22:28
-----
17. 18 Ginko - 2:22:38
18. Nitori - 2:23:03
19. Sysmex - 2:23:12
20. Senko - 2:24:36
21. SID Group - 2:24:40
22. Miyazaki Ginko - 2:24:53
23. Noritz - 2:25:33
24. Canon - 2:26:26
25. Kagoshima Ginko - 2:26:34
26. Comodi Iida - 2:27:52
27. Tokyo Metro - 2:28:18
28. Aichi Denki - 2:28:58
29. Toto - 2:29:32
30. Memolead - 2:32:58
-----
DNF - Kyocera
© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments
Edion disappointed, most especially their premier runner, Kaede Hagitani who finished 12th in her leg. She certainly has not been in the best form of late and she did look in a bit of distress rather early so perhaps there is something else going on such as an injury.
Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko) was super impressive as she has been on the track of late. She fights very hard till the end and she deserved that course record. Well done to her!
I was glad to see Honami Maeda run a solid time and she looks to be in good form but it might be problematic for her to run a marathon this year with the Queen's Exiden a week prior to the Hofu Marathon which was the one I expected her to enter. I guess she could use the run in the Queen's Exiden as part of her training plan but surely, it would not be an ideal preparation if the Hofu Marathon is indeed one she wants to enter.
It's a shame TBS geo-blocked their Youtube channels so us viewers in Australia could not see the coverage via that avenue. I'm not sure why they did this as they allowed us to watch the event last year on their Youtube channels. It was disappointing. Thankfully, I was able to find another way to watch the main TBS channel. It was a very exciting event this year and well done to all the teams that took part and I do hope that Mei Shirai can recover fully from her thigh fracture. It is a major injury for a 21 year old and will, no doubt, raise concerns about over training once again.
It appears as if the Princess Ekiden has had a lot of concerning incidents regarding runner health and safety over the past ~5 editions. This year was Kyudenko's Shirai breaking her leg. In 2020 there was Kako Okdada, also from Kyocera, collapsing within 100m of the end of the first leg. Then in 2018 there was Iwatani Sangyo's Rei Iida crawling to finish the second stage after an injury and Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo's Harumi Okamoto becoming disoriented and delirious in the last kilometers of the third stage. Maybe I'm experiencing some recency bias, but I can't shake the feeling that it's probably tied to deeper issues with how much of a meat grinder many of the women's corporate teams seem to be. I really hope that Shirai has a safe and speedy recovery.
But yes, here's to Shirai coming back from this.