National High School Ekiden Preview, and the Rest of Championship Ekiden Season

Corporate women and junior high school students have already had their nationally-televised national championship ekidens, but tomorrow's National High School Ekiden in Kyoto kicks off the busiest part of the year, with 5 days of championship ekiden racing in the span of 10 days. NHK broadcasts high school Nationals live and ad-free on Dec. 25, with the girls' race starting at 10:20 a.m. and the boys at 12:30 p.m. local time. There's not likely to be any internationally-available streaming, but get a VPN and you should be good. With JRN's holiday travel plans canceled because of the weather in the PNW, we'll probably be covering both races live on @JRNLive. Buy us a coffee to help us get through the day.

The top high school teams in Japan would do pretty well in the NCAA on both the girls' and boys' sides, meaning two high-level races. In the girls' race, 21.0975 km in five legs, Sendai Ikuei H.S. won in 1:07:16 by over a minute last year but is down in strength after the graduation of Nanaka Yonezawa, who put Sendai Ikuei out front by 30 seconds on the 6.0 km First Stage. That first half momentum was critical to Sendai Ikuei's win, and whether 3rd-year Kokone Sugimori, winner on the 4.0975 km Second Stage last year, can step up to replicate that this year is one of the main questions of the day. First years Aoi Hosokawa and Misaki Nagaoka are key to Sendai Ikuei's chances.

All of last year's top 5 teams are back, with 6th-place Suma Gakuen H.S., 9th-place Kitakyushu Shiritsu H.S. and 10th-place Chiharadai H.S. beaten at their prefectural qualifiers this fall and replaced by Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S., Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S. and Luther Gakuin H.S. 2020 national champ Sera H.S. is also back after a disastrous 31st-place follow up last year.

Boys race 42.195 km in 7 stages. The Sera boys won in 2020 and 2021, running 2:01:31 and 2:01:21, with heavy pressure last year from local Kyoto team Rakunan H.S., which ran the fastest time ever by an all-Japanese lineup, 2:01:59, thanks in large part to U20 1500 m, 3000 m and 5000 m NR holder Keita Sato. Sato has moved on to an important role at national champion Komazawa University, but Rakunan remains one of the favorites to break up a Sera threepeat. All of the 2021 top 10 teams are back, so there will be a lot of other competition too.

But the main excitement will be a potential showdown between H.S. 5000 m NR holder Hiroto Yoshioka of Saku Chosei H.S., 13:22.99, and Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.' Sonata Nagashima, 28:31 on the 10 km opening leg at the Hyogo prefectural qualifier. The only thing holding that back would be Saku Chosei head coach Masaru Takamizawa opting not to have Yoshioka run double digit distance at Nationals.

After the National High School Ekiden, the last big race of the year is the Dec. 30 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, the university women's national championship race. Jan. 1 kicks off with the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, followed by the biggest of them all, the mighty Hakone Ekiden's 99th running. Look for previews of all these next week.

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...

japan running news

Search This Blog