Skip to main content

2023 Hakone Ekiden TV Broadcast Viewership Hits Peak Rating of 35.0%

A New Year tradition, the Nippon TV live broadcast of the 99th Hakone Ekiden earned an average viewership rating of 27.5% for the Day One broadcast from 7:50 a.m. to 2:05 p.m. on Jan. 2, and 29.6% for the Day Two broadcast from 7:50 a.m. to 2:18 p.m. on Jan. 3, an overall average of 28.6% according to data analyzed by Video Research, Inc

Last year's broadcast earned an average rating of 26.2% for Day One, 28.4% for Day Two, and 27.3% overall. Two years ago at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic when fans were asked not to come watch the race along its course, Day One earned ratings of 31.0%, Day Two of 33.7%, and the overall broadcast 32.3%, record highs in all three categories since the Nippon TV broadcast began in 1987.

Peak viewership on Day One this year was 31.9% at 9:04 a.m. when the race's first exchange was happening, and on Day Two 35.0% at 1:24 p.m. when Komazawa University anchor Hibiki Aogaki brought the team home to win the Hakone Ekiden for the 8th time. Together with its wins at this season's Izumo Ekiden in October and National University Ekiden in November, Komazawa became only the 5th school in history to win all three major university ekidens in a single season. With the fastest times for both the Day One and Day Two segments, it also achieved a perfect win.

The winningest school in Hakone's 99-year history with 14 overall victories, Chuo University finished 2nd. It was Chuo's first top-3 placing at Hakone since it took 3rd in 2001 and best performance since its 1996 win. Last year's Hakone champion Aoyama Gakuin University was 3rd.

source article:
translated and edited by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Batt-Doyle and Strintzos Break Records at Launceston Half

Australians Isobel Batt-Doyle and Haftu Strintzos turned in record-breaking performances to win the McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon in Tasmania. Running with a private male pacer, NR holder Batt-Doyle dusted the field with the fastest half marathon ever by an Australian woman on Australian soil, a 1:08:46 CR that put her 2 and a half minutes ahead of runner-up Genevieve Gregson . Last year's runner-up Yumi Yoshikawa was almost a minute back from Gregson in 3rd in 1:12:03, but was almost run down by club runner Ayaka Shimoyamada . Starting slow in her international debut, Shimoyamada moved up from 7th over the 2nd half of the race to finish 4th in 1:12:06, kicking hard in the home straight to try to catch Yoshikawa and momentarily blacking out after finishing. Kaho Onishi was 7th in 1:12:45 in her own international debut. The men's half had pacing set at 2:53/km to try to deliver the first-ever sub-61 half marathon on Australian soil. CR holde...

CHN and JPN National Records Go Down - Weekend Track Update

There weren't any Japanese athletes in action at the Rabat Diamond League meet Sunday, but 2 lower-tier domestic meets produced new national records. At the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama, Samuel Kibathi (Toyota) led the top 5 in the men's 10000 m under 28 minutes in 27:39.97. In 3rd, China's Wenjie Wang took just over a second off his own NR from the same meet last year, setting a new record of 27:47.53. His teammate Haoran Tang was 6th in a 28:27.44 PB, with the top Japanese time in the race being a 28:33.39 for 8th from Jin Yuasa (Toyota). Amazingly, Wang and Tang were back the next day on day 2 of the Nittai meet, Wang running a PB of 13:35.58 for 4th in the A-heat and Tang winning the B-heat in a PB of 13:38.80. Isaac Ndiema took the A-heat in 13:26.49, with the fastest Japanese time going to Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) with a 13:35.94 for 5th behind Wang. Other Nittai highlights: Deborah Chemutai (Univ. Ent.) won a photo finish against Yua Nagamori ...