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.

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...

Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...

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