Skip to main content

Matsuda Anchors Osaka to National Women's Ekiden Title, Junior High Schooler Drury 9:02 For 3 km


The top Japanese woman in the marathon at last summer's Oregon World Championships, Mizuki Matsuda went from 3rd to 1st on the anchor stage to give the Osaka team its fourth national title Sunday at the National Women's Ekiden in Kyoto.

Osaka was 4th after the 6.0 km 1st leg and was never worse that than. 2nd runner Saya Nakajima put them in the lead, where they stayed for the next five of the 42.195 km race's nine stages except for a brief drop back to 4th when its fourth runner Chihiro Sato struggled. Fifth runner Yua Tsukamoto turned it back around, but with only a 1-second lead at the start of her stage junior high schooler Rio Kawamura couldn't hold off Fukuoka's Shiina Sugahara and Tokyo's Yuna Oki and dropped to 3rd.

Matsuda started only 5 seconds out of 1st and had no trouble overtaking Tokyo anchor Yuri Karasawa and Fukuoka's Wakana Itsuki to go back out front. Matsuda turned in the fastest run on the 10.0 km anchor stage, 31:22, to bring Osaka home in 2:15:48, the fastest of its four wins in the National Women's Ekiden's 41-year history.


Two-time defending champ Kyoto was never really in contention for the win, moving up from 5th to 2nd in 2:16:37 on the final leg thanks to anchor Hina Yanagitani running the fastest time after Matsuda, 31:54. Fukuoka narrowly held on to 3rd in 2:16:47, beating a fast-closing Kanagawa by only 2 seconds. Tokyo came up short of bettering its best-ever finishing position of 3rd, falling from 2nd to 5th in 2:17:13 on the anchor stage.

In individual racing the star of the day was 9th-grader Sherry Drury. Starting for Okayama in 38th out of 47 teams on the 3.0 km JHS-only 3rd leg, Drury cut 8 seconds off the course record for the leg, running 9:02 and passing 17 people en route. Her splits were reported to have been 2:55 - 3:04 - 3:03. People like Yuriko Kobayashi, Seira Fuwa and Nanaka Yonezawa made their national-level ekiden debuts on the same stage, and Drury beat them all by 12 seconds. A lot junior talent that shines at the National Women's Ekiden and next weekend's National Men's Ekiden flames out and never really progresses, but Drury definitely put herself on the map of talent to watch over the next few years.

41st National Women's Ekiden

Kyoto, 15 Jan. 2023
47 teams, 9 stages, 42.195 km

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (6.0 km) - Haruka Kokai (Niigata) - 19:06
Second Stage (4.0 km) - Nanami Watanabe (Kanagawa) - 12:31
Third Stage (3.0 km) - Sherry Drury (Okayama) - 9:02 - CR
Fourth Stage (4.0 km) - Yumi Yamamoto (Kyoto) - 12:56
Fifth Stage (4.1075 km) - Mao Uesugi (Chiba) - 13:07
Sixth Stage (4.0875 km) - Nozomi Kondo (Kanagawa) - 12:47
Seventh Stage (4.0 km) - Aiko Hosoya (Kyoto) / Machiko Iwasaki (Fukushima) - 12:34
Eighth Stage (3.0 km) - Nonomi Kido (Fukushima) - 9:43
Ninth Stage (10.0 km) - Mizuki Matsuda (Osaka) - 31:22

Top Team Results
1. Osaka - 2:15:48
2. Kyoto - 2:16:37
3. Fukuoka - 2:16:47
4. Kanagawa - 2:16:49
5. Tokyo - 2:17:13
6. Chiba - 2:17:39
7. Kagoshima - 2:18:39
8. Aichi - 2:18:47
9. Hyogo - 2:19:12
10. Miyagi - 2:19:32
11. Nagano - 2:19:32
12. Nagasaki - 2:19:57

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
Drury has a Canadian father and a Japanese mother. She has run a 2:45.84 1000m.
January 17, 2023 at 1:42 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .
Post a Comment
Read more

Hirayama Breaks Osaka Half CR, Martinez Set Puerto Rican NR

The Osaka Half Marathon took another big step up the domestic half marathon rankings from a mass-participation race run alongside the Osaka International Women's Marathon to one of the country's top-tier races. In the women's race, the debuting Jecinta Nyokabi (Denso) went out fast, only to be run down by veteran Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon AC) by 10 km. Nyokabi faded to 6th in 1:10:41, but Yoshikawa pushed on to a PB 1:09:14 for the win. Rina Shimizu (Noritz), Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) and Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.) all broke 70 minutes, Tsuchiya taking the Kansai Region collegiate title in 1:09:32 for 4th overall. Everyone in the top 10 who wasn't debuting ran a PB, a mark of how fast the day was even with cold and windy conditions. The men's race went out on sub-61 pace courtesy of Yudai Shimazu (GMO), then got a big injection of speed when Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) took off close to 60-flat pace. Yokota opened a 10-second lead by 15 km, but over ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marugame, Beppu-Oita and More - Weekend Preview

After the Osaka International Women's Marathon and Osaka Half Marathon last weekend Japan's winter road season rolls on with 3 big races Sunday. The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon has a good field up front in the women's race with 5 runners, Eilish McColgan , Dolphine Omare , Isobel Batt-Doyle , Charlotte Purdue and Yuka Ando , with sub-1:09 bests and the debut of #1 collegiate runner Sarah Wanjiru of Daito Bunka University . 3 men in Marugame have recent sub-60 times, Emmanuel Maru , Richard Etir and Kotaro Shinohara leading the way. Shinohara was one of 2 Japanese men to break 60 at Marugame last year and missed the NR by 3 seconds in 59:30. After a 42:53 CR on his 15.3 km leg at the New Year Ekiden on Jan.1, 45:06 pace for 10 miles, he's looking to pick up at least another 4 seconds this time around. 14 other men in the field are at the 60-minute level, and Chuo University 's sub-28 10000 m runner Yamato Hamaguchi is making a highly anticip...
1 comment
Read more