Fujitsu and Kurosaki Harima Win East Japan and Kyushu Region New Year Ekiden Qualifiers

The first two regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships happened Nov. 3 in Saitama and Kyushu. At the East Japan Race in Saitama, 2021 New Year Ekiden winner Fujitsu outran 2022 champ Honda by 40 seconds for 1st. Honda started and finished strong with stages wins from its lead and anchor runners Hideto Kosode and Naoki Koyama, but Fujitsu had a solid lineup mid-race led by a stage record win on the Fourth Stage by Ken Yokote that gave it the lead it needed for the win.

Most of the big names qualified without any surprises. Local supermarket chain Sunbelx did surprise, spending much of the race as high as 3rd before finishing an excellent 5th overall. Down near the 12th-place cutoff for New Year qualification, Saitama Ika Daigaku Group had a nail-biter as it dueled with the Comodi Iida supermarket team, ND Software and Komori Corporation to stay in the ring for its second-ever qualification. Despite a sub-par run from #1 man Kenta Uchida it came through, beating the usually-strong Komori for 12th by 1:13.

In the Kyushu region, both of the main two powerhouses Asahi Kasei and Mitsubishi Juko struggled, finishing only 5th and 6th out of the eight qualifying teams. The ascendant Kurosaki Harima team dominated, sub-61 half marathoner Yusuke Tamura leading off with the first of the team's four stage wins and 2:06 marathoner Kyohei Hosoya making a quick turnaround from his 6th-place finish at the Chicago Marathon last month to win the Fifth Stage.

Down in the race for the final qualifying spot at 8th, Togami Denki easily held off Hiramatsu Byoin by over 6 minutes to make the cut. Qualification continues Nov. 13 with the Chugoku, Chubu, Kansai and Hokuriku regional qualifying race.

63rd East Japan Corporate Men's Ekiden

Kumagaya, Saitama, 3 Nov. 2022

31 teams, 7 stages, 76.9 km

complete results

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (11.6 km) - Hideto Kosode (Honda) - 34:27

Second Stage (8.0 km) - Benson Kiplangat (Subaru) - 21:17 - CR

Third Stage (16.5 km) - Akito Terui (Subaru) - 48:01

Fourth Stage (9.5 km) - Ken Yokote (Fujitsu) - 27:09 - CR

Fifth Stage (7.8 km) - Tetsu Yokoyama (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 22:25

Sixth Stage (10.6 km) - Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 30:10

Seventh Stage (12.9 km) - Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 37:26 - CR

Top Team Results

top 12 teams qualify for New Year Ekiden

1. Fujitsu - 3:42:01

2. Honda - 3:42:41

3. Hitachi Butsuryu - 3:42:57

4. Yakult - 3:43:11

5. Sunbelx - 3:43:16

6. GMO - 3:43:56

7. Subaru - 3:45:07

8. Kao - 3:45:36

9. JR Higashi Nihon - 3:46:39

10. Konica Minolta - 3:47:09

11. Comodi Iida - 3:48:19

12. SID Group - 3:48:31

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13. Komori Corp. - 3:49:44

14. Press Kogyo - 3:50:49

15. SDF Academy - 3:52:10

59th Kyushu Corporate Men's Ekiden

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 3 Nov. 2022

19 teams, 7 stages, 80.2 km

complete results

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (12.9 km) - Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) - 36:58

Second Stage (7.0 km) - Benard Koech (Kyudenko) - 18:40

Third Stage (10.9 km) - Keito Makise (Toyota Kyushu) / Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 31:21

Fourth Stage (9.5 km) - Tomonobu Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) - 27:21

Fifth Stage (13.0 km) - Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima) - 38:03

Sixth Stage (10.9 km) - Masami Nagakura (Kurosaki Harima) - 31:39

Seventh Stage (16.0 km) - Shohei Otsuka (Kyudenko) - 47:01

Top Team Results

top 8 teams qualify for New Year Ekiden

1. Kurosaki Harima - 3:52:29

2. Kyudenko - 3:54:03

3. Toyota Kyushu - 3:54:23

4. Yasukawa Denki - 3:55:49

5. Asahi Kasei - 3:55:53

6. Mitsubishi Juko - 3:56:48

OP - Corporate Select Team A - 3:57:37

7. Nishitetsu - 3:59:01

OP - Corporate Select Team B - 4:00:29

8. Togami Denki - 4:00:41

OP - Corporate Select Team C - 4:02:22

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9. Hiramatsu Byoin - 4:07:07

10. Hioki City Hall - 4:16:03

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

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