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.

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

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...

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