Riding the momentum of its Day One win yesterday, Komazawa University dominated Day Two of the 99th Hakone Ekiden for the overall win. Combined with its CR wins at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden, the Hakone victory made Komazawa only the 5th school to score the triple crown of major ekiden wins in a single season. It was the first triple crown of head coach Hiroaki Oyagi's career, his biggest achievement at the biggest road race in the world, the one that has eluded him for decades. And, with his post-race announcement that he will step back from his role as head coach, it was his last.
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Komazawa started Day Two with a 30-second lead over last year's 6th-placer Chuo University and 2:03 over 2022 Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University. Following the success of 1st-year Takuma Yamakawa on the uphill 5th leg yesterday, Oyagi opted to put 1st-year Aoi Ito on the steep downhill 6th leg. Ito excelled, outrunning Chuo's Haruto Wakabayashi by 17 seconds to win the stage on time and extend the lead to 47 seconds. Chuo's Tomohiro Chimori managed to shave 3 seconds off Komazawa's lead on the 21.3 km 7th leg, outrunning Komazawa's Taiyo Yasuhara 1:03:15 to 1:03:18, but that was the last time Komazawa lost any ground.
Over the final three legs Komazawa's Yuto Akahoshi, Chikara Yamano and Hibiki Aogaki opened on Chuo, Akahoshi taking the lead to 1:05, Yamano to 1:32, and Aogaki to the final margin of victory of 1:42. In a race where only one of its ten runners won his stage but all ten placed in the top 5, Komazawa's time of 10:47:11 for the full 217.1 km course was the 3rd-best in Hakone history, a true team effort. Broadcast announcer Yasuyuki Watanabe, a former Hakone 2nd leg course breaker who went on to coach Waseda in its 2010-2011 triple crown season, was amazed at Oyagi's strategy of putting 1st years on the brutal mountain stages while at the same time not using his most talented 1st year, U20 5000 m NR holder Keita Sato. "I could never have predicted that," Watanabe said. "He knows his data."
Oyagi was full of praise and gratitude to his runners post-race, crediting them for their focus the entire year and for helping build a smoothly functioning and successful program. He then announced that he will step back to take on an executive position, allowing assistant coach and former 2:06:51 marathon NR holder Atsushi Fujita to take over as head coach for the season leading into next year's 100th running. Oyagi's harsh voice screaming from the chase car speaker is one of the most recognizable things at Hakone, and the event will have a different feel without it.
Chuo's 10:48:53 for 2nd made them the 5th-fastest team ever. Head coach and collegiate marathon NR holder Masakazu Fujiwara said post-race that his goal this time was a top-3 finish as a step toward going for the win next year. All smiles, he said, "I'm very happy with their performance. My athletes did a great job." Both Komazawa and Chuo will have roughly the same number of people graduate this season, but with Komazawa losing #1 man Ren Tazawa and Chuo keeping its best, Yamato Yoshii, next year should be very interesting.
But Hakone Day Two isn't about just the winners. The race for top 10 and a guaranteed place at the next year's race is always one of its highlights, and with the 100th running at stake this time the intensity was higher than ever. Behind the top two, a chase group of five, Soka University, Hosei University, Waseda University, Koku Gakuin University and Juntendo University, congealed to battle it out for 3rd through 7th, Soka moving up with a 1:02:43 stage win by Jun Kasai on the 21.3 km 7th leg and Hosei with a 1:04:16 win by Naoki Munakata on the 21.4 km 8th leg.
Aoyama Gakuin faltered over the 6th through 8th legs, but 9th man Hironori Kishimoto blasted the 2nd-fastest time ever on the 23.1 km 9th leg, 1:07:27, to take them all down and move into 3rd. And that's where AGU stayed, finishing in an all-time #9 10:54:25. Post-race head coach Susumu Hara was uncharacteristically subdued, dropping his TV celebrity persona and admitting honestly that the mountain stages hadn't gone well and that his choices for race-day substitutions mostly hadn't worked out. "It was a given that we still had the ability to finish 3rd," he said post-race, "but Aoyama Gakuin isn't a team that aims for 3rd. We'll be back."
In Kishimoto's wake the 5-man chase pack broke apart, with almost constant turnover between them the rest of the way. Izumo and Nationals runner-up Koku Gakuin took the top spot among them at 4th in 10:55:01. When Kishimoto went by Juntendo was the first to fall off, but a stage-winning run from anchor Yuma Nishizawa brought them back up to 5th in 10:55:18. Outside the top 10 last year but back in the fold with a 4th-place finish at October's Yosenkai qualifier, in its first season under new head coach Katsuhiko Hanada Waseda was right behind Juntendo in 10:55:21 for 6th. Hosei ran the 3rd-fastest time on the Day Two course to bump up its 8th-place Day One finish to 7th in 10:55:28, while 2021 Hakone runner-up Soka moved up as high as 3rd before falling to 8th in 10:55:55 on the anchor stage.
That left the other big race of the day, the race for the last two spots at next year's 100th edition. At the start of the day Tokyo Kokusai University sat 7th, Josai University 9th, with podium regular Toyo University 1:27 outside the cut in 11th and #6-ranked Meiji University, one of the original four schools to run the 1st Hakone in 1920, another 47 seconds behind in 12th. A 7th stage joint win by Meiji's Safumi Sugi brought them up into range, but Toyo mirrored that with a joint win on the 8th stage by Daichi Kimoto to shut Meiji out. Josai overtook Tokyo Kokusai, then Toyo did too.
On the anchor stage Josai's Shuma Yamanaka and Toyo's Taiga Seino went back and forth the entire way, not seeming to notice Tokyo Kokusai anchor Keigo Horihata closing on them until he was within 20 seconds. Yamanaka then made a move that put Josai permanently ahead, bringing them home in 9th in 10:58:22. Toyo was just 4 seconds behind in 10:58:26 for 10th, closer than any of their fans would have liked but successfully keeping its streak of podium finishes dating back to 2006.
Horihata could only watch as Yamanaka pulled away and dragged Seino with him, slowing rapidly for an agonizing 11th-place finish in 10:59:58 after having come so close. With Tokyo Kokusai's top two Vincent Yegon and Ken Tansho graduating this year the team will face a tough battle to re-qualify for next year's 100th running now. Likewise for Meiji, whose team this year was heavily populated with 4th-years but could still do no better than 12th in 11:01:37.
The bottom three teams in the field, Kokushikan University, the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team and Senshu University, all got white sashed when their runners fell more than 20 minutes behind leader Komazawa, meaning the tasuki sash they started with didn't complete the race. In Senshu's case 9th man Riki Minami missed the cutoff by only 9 seconds, one of the most devastating moments of the race. Making it through, though, was 18th-place Rikkyo University. In just its 4th season under head coach Yuichiro Ueno Rikkyo qualified for Hakone this year for the first time in 55 years, and it made it to the finish line with its original tasuki. Beating the white sash cutoffs as a program with essentially no experience is no small achievement, and post-race Ueno looked properly happy with it.
All together only two legs at this year's Hakone Ekiden had new course records, but almost every stage on each day had historical top ten times, and likewise for the overall team results. It was very noticeable how high the average level has gotten, and how major breakdowns by individual athletes have gotten less common. Also noticeable were the crowds along the course, which returned this year after being asked to stay home during the first years of the pandemic. People were asked not to cheer out loud as a corona precaution and mostly complied, leaving the packed streets oddly quiet given the numbers of people. But the sight of deep crowds over almost all of the 217.1 km course offered a taste of what's to come at next year's historic 100th running. It's going to be the biggest thing road racing has ever seen.
99th Hakone Ekiden Day Two
Kanagawa-Tokyo, 03 Jan. 2023
21 teams, 5 stages, 109.6 km, >850 m elevation loss
Top Individual Stage Results
Sixth Stage (20.8 km, ~800 m descent from peak)
1. Aoi Ito (1st yr., Komazawa Univ.) - 58:22
2. Haruto Wakabayashi (4th yr., Chuo Univ.) - 58:39
3. Hikaru Kitamura (3rd yr., Waseda Univ.) - 58:58
Seventh Stage (21.3 km)
1. Jun Kasai (4th yr., Soka Univ.). 1:02:43 - all-time #8
1. Safumi Sugi (3rd yr., Meiji Univ.) - 1:02:43 - all-time #8
3. Koki Asai (2nd yr,, Juntendo Univ.) - 1:03:04
Eighth Stage (21.4 km)
1. Naoki Munakata (3rd yr., Hosei Univ.) - 1:04:16 - all-time #6
1. Daichi Kimoto (4th yr., Toyo Univ.) - 1:04:16 - all-time #6
3. Shunsuke Taira (4th yr., Juntendo Univ.) - 1:04:17 - all-time #8
Ninth Stage (23.1 km)
1. Hironori Kishimoto (4th yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:07:27 - all-time #2
2. Takanori Ogata (4th yr., Soka Univ.) - 1:08:23 - all-time #8
3. Chikara Yamano (4th yr., Komazawa Univ.) - 1:08:26 - all-time #9
Tenth Stage (23.0 km)
1. Yuma Nishizawa (4th yr., Juntendo Univ.) - 1:08:42 - all-time #3
2. Hibiki Aogaki (3rd yr., Komazawa Univ.) - 1:09:18
3. Takumi Sukegawa (4th yr., Chuo Univ.) - 1:09:27
Overall Team Results
10 stages, 217.1 km
top 10 qualify for 100th Hakone Ekiden, 2024
1. Komazawa University - 10:47:11 - all-time #3
2. Chuo University - 10:48:53 - all-time #5
3. Aoyama Gakuin University - 10:54:25 - all-time #9
4. Koku Gakuin University - 10:55:01
5. Juntendo University - 10:55:18
6. Waseda University - 10:55:21
7. Hosei University - 10:55:28
8. Soka University - 10:55:55
9. Josai University - 10:58:22
10. Toyo University - 10:58:26
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11. Tokyo Kokusai University - 10:59:58
12. Meiji University - 11:01:37
13. Teikyo University - 11:03:29
14. Yamanashi Gakuin University - 11:04:02
15. Tokai University - 11:06:02
16. Daito Bunka University - 11:06:08
17. Nittai University - 11:06:32
18. Rikkyo University - 11:10:38
19. Kokushikan University - 11:13:56
OP - Kanto Region Student Alliance - 11:17:13
20. Senshu University - 11:19:28
Day Two Results
5 stages, 109.6 km, >850 m elevation loss
1. Komazawa University - 5:24:01 - all-time #4
2. Chuo University - 5:25:13 - all-time #7
3. Hosei University - 5:26:35 - all-time #10
4. Juntendo University - 5:27:37
5. Toyo University - 5:27:44
6. Waseda University - 5:27:48
7. Koku Gakuin University - 5:27:51
8. Soka University - 5:29:07
9. Aoyama Gakuin University - 5:29:12
10. Josai University - 5:29:18
11. Nittai University - 5:29:59
12. Daito Bunka University - 5:30:07
13. Meiji University - 5:30:08
14. Yamanashi Gakuin University - 5:30:23
15. Teikyo University - 5:31:09
16. Rikkyo University - 5:31:47
17. Tokyo Kokusai University - 5:32:09
18. Tokai University - 5:34:22
OP - Kanto Region Student Alliance - 5:40:21
19. Kokushikan University - 5:40:40
20. Senshu University - 5:40:53
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