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.

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...

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