Thursday's public holiday is the traditional date for the East Japan Corporate Men's Ekiden, the first of the regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championship. The New Year Ekiden is the only one of the major championship ekidens without a seeded bracket guaranteeing top-placing teams a spot at the next year's race, something that forces every corporate men's team to run the regional qualifier right in the middle of fall marathon season. Liberalizing that setup would have a measurable effect on men's marathoning, but like everything else in Japan vested financial interests and politics keep things the way they are.
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This year the East Japan race, which covers the greater Tokyo area and further north, returns to the roads of rural Saitama for 76.9 km in 7 stages after spending the pandemic on a loop course inside a park in the city of Kumagaya. 31 teams are entered, a massive increase due to the move to allow club teams to participate, with the top 12 going on to the big race on Jan. 1. In a first, TBS will be broadcasting the race on race day, not quite live but starting at 13:55 local time.
There's not much chance of 2022 New Year Ekiden champ Honda or 2021 winner Fujitsu failing to qualify, even with Honda having lost anchor Hidekazu Hijikata to a better offer from Kyushu Region rival Asahi Kasei. Down to about 9th-ranked JR Higashi Nihon things are pretty predictable, but starting with #10-ranked Konica Minolta, still in a rebuilding phase after coaching and membership turnover, it starts getting interesting. Supermarket competitors Sunbelx and Comodi Iida are ranked 11th an 12th, with SID Group and Press Kogyo close behind. The Tokyo Police Department team is also strong, making it at least 6 teams in serious contention for the last 3 spots.
In terms of individuals, Fujitsu is coming out hard with track specialists Yuta Bando, Benard Kimeli, Kazuya Shiojiri, Ken Yokote and Hiroki Matsueda set to handle the first five stages. Honda is pinning a lot of its hopes on Olympians Ryoma Aoki and Tatsuhiko Ito on the third and fourth legs and anchor Naoki Koyama, a key player in its New Year Ekiden win. #5-ranked GMO has a marathoner-heavy lineup, with Yuta Shimoda, Tadashi Isshiki, Yuya Yoshida and Ryo Hashimoto running 4th through 7th, even as its top marathoner Suguru Osako is in NYC for the marathon there.
International athletes are restricted to the 8.0 km Second Stage, where 16 teams are fielding Kenyans: Fujitsu's Kimeli, Jackson Kavesa (Honda), Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu), Stanley Waithaka (Yakult), Gideon Kipkertich Ronoh (GMO), Ledama Kisaisa (Kao), Benson Kiplangat (Subaru), John Kariuki (Komori Corp.), Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon), James Muoki (Konica Minolta), Samson Ndirangu (Sunbelx), Benard Kimani (Comodi Iida), Titus Wambua (SID Group), Lawrence Ngure (Press Kogyo), Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) and Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Track Tokyo). Taken all together there's not another road race in the world this week with this kind of firepower in its lineup. Live results will be available here. English coverage may be available on @JRNLive, with some on-site coverage on @tri_chaser.
Also tomorrow, the Kyushu Region holds its regional qualifier, with 19 teams racing 80.2 km in 7 stages for the 8 New Year Ekiden places on the line. Megalith Asahi Kasei and the strong Mitsubishi Juko, Kurosaki Harima and Kyudenko teams are pretty much a given for qualification, with Toyota Kyushu and Yasukawa Denki also pretty well secure. That leaves three teams, Nishitetsu, Togami Denki and Hiramatsu Byoin in contention for the last two spots.
The first stage has a tasty matchup between sub-61 half marathoners Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) and Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima), and 2:07:05 marathoner Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko), with the anchor stage featuring 2:06 marathoners Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and Hijikata in his Asashi Kasei debut, sub-61 half marathoner Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki), 2:07:38 marathoner Shohei Otsuka (Kyudenko) and more.
The Second Stage isn't as deep as in the larger East Japan region but is still packed with top-level Japan-based African talent like Davis Kiplangat (Asahi Kasei), Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko), Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima), Benard Koech (Kyudenko), Anthony Maina (Toyota Kyushu), Welde Tufa (Yasukawa Denki), Nixon Lessia (Nishitetsu), Simon Kariuki (Togami Denki) and Yeneblo Biyazen (Hiramatsu Byoin). Complete entry lists are here.
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