It wouldn't be ekiden season without another busy weekend on the roads and track. On the track, Yokohama's Nittai University celebrates the 300th edition of its famous time trials series by banning spectators again as corona numbers climb back upward across Japan. Saturday features 5 heats of men's 10000 m and 4 heats of women's 3000 m and 5000 m, with marathoners Reia Iwade (Denso) and Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Yamaguchi) matching up against Kenyans Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Sumitomo Denko), Jecinta Nyokabi (Hakuoh Joshi H.S.), Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) and Elizabeth Njeri (Josai Kokusai Univ.). Sunday features 27 heats of men's 5000 m, with the A-heat including sub-27 10000 m man Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu), steeplechase great Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu), and 27:28.92 runner Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) on the next phase of his trip back from a long injury.
Sunday's Setagaya 246 Half Marathon in suburban Tokyo is the main non-ekiden road race of the weekend, always featuring contingents from Hakone Ekiden-bound universities including 2022 champ Aoyama Gakuin University, 2022 Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden winner Komazawa University, Nationals runner-up Koku Gakuin University and more. The Tsukuba Marathon also happens Sunday, one of Japan's bigger mass-participation marathons that saw a 2:14:19 men's CR from Josai University assistant coach Shingo Igarashi in its last edition in 2019.
In ekiden action, the Kansai, Chubu, Chugoku and Hokuriku regions all hold their qualifying races for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, following up on the Nov. 3 regional qualifiers in East Japan and Kyushu. The Kansai region race will be streamed up top starting at 9:00 a.m. Sunday local time.
Also Sunday is the East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima, a smaller version of January's National Women's Ekiden featuring 18 prefectural teams made up of top women at the junior high school to pro level from Tokyo and surrounding prefectures. It's a great format that gives younger athletes the chance to be teammates and hand off with top collegians, pros, and Olympians. Fuji TV will be broadcasting it live starting at noon local time.
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