Skip to main content

Panasonic and Kamimura Gakuen H.S. Win Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden


The last major women's ekiden of the season happened north of Fukuoka Sunday at the 34th Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden. Top high school, university and corporate league teams run head-to-head at Kitakyushu, with the longest stage split into two for the high school division.

7th at November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden, Panasonic was first across the finish line after running down 2019 and 2020 high school division winner Kamimura Gakuen H.S. mid-race. After a good start from Panasonic's Nanami Watanabe, Kamimura Gakuen's Brenda Jepchirchir ran down Panasonic's Sakiko Naito on the 3.8 km 2nd stage. But Kaori Morita was quick to turn it back around for the Panasonic on the stage, turning a 2-second deficit into a 33-second lead in just 3.9 km. Morita handed off to her twin sister Shiori Morita, and from there the corporate leaguers ran unchallenged, winning for first time in 1:28:14.

Kamimura Gakuen, 3rd at December's National High School Ekiden, held on to 2nd place over the Kyudenko corporate team over the 3rd and 4th legs, but even with the advantage of having 5.9 km and 4.5 km segments versus the corporate leaguers' 10.4 km anchor stage they couldn't stay there. Kyudenko anchor Yuri Karasawa was just too strong for Kamimura Gakuen's Yuzuki Ueno and Hina Ogura, overtaking them by 8 seconds to cross the finish line 2nd in 1:28:48. Kamimura Gakuen was next in 1:28:56 to win the high school division for the third time in four editions.

34th Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 22 Jan. 2023

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (5.3 km) - Mariya Noda (Kitakyushu Shiritsu H.S.) - 16:49 - CR
Second Stage (3.8 km) - Eva Cherono (Toto) - 11:34
Third Stage (3.9 km) - Kaori Morita (Panasonic) - 12:42
Fourth Stage (3.8 km) - Yuka Sarumida (Univ. Ent.) - 11:53
Fifth Stage (open - 10.4 km) - Yuri Karasawa (Kyudenko) - 34:30
Fifth Stage (H.S. - 5.9 km) - Kana Mizumoto (Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) - 19:00
Sixth Stage (H.S. - 4.5 km) - Hina Ogura (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) - 14:59

Top Team Results
Open - 9 teams, 5 stages, 27.2 km
1. Panasonic - 1:28:14
2. Kyudenko - 1:28:48
3. Universal Entertainment - 1:29:11
4. Higo Ginko - 1:31:04
5. Iwatani Sangyo - 1:31:13

High School - 17 teams, 6 stages, 27.2 km
1. Kamimura Gakuen H.S. - 1:28:56
2. Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. - 1:29:56
3. Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. - 1:30:32
4. Isahaya H.S. - 1:30:44
5. Kitakyushu Shiritsu H.S. - 1:32:27

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Fukuoka International Marathon Elite Field

The Dec. 1 Fukuoka International Marathon is the first of this winter season's big selection races for the home soil team for next year's Tokyo World Championships, and the domestic field is a great one. Kenya Sonota , 2:05:59 in Tokyo last year, and 2:06 men Yusuke Nishiyama , Yuya Yoshida , Kazuya Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi make up the main contenders to get a spot, with internationals Lemeck Too , Jie He , Bethwel Yegon , Vincent Raimoi , last year's winner Michael Githae , and Shaohui Yang perfectly positioned to add momentum to the shot at the 2:06:30 Worlds standard that they'll all be taking. 8 other Japanese men in the 2:07 to 2:09 range make it one of the most competitive Fukuoka editions in a long, long time. Last year Githae outkicked Yang by 1 second to win 2:07:08 to 2:07:09, Yang with a Chinese NR that was broken a few months later by He in Wuxi. Chinese men's marathoning has momentum right now too, and it wouldn't be surprising to see either He
Post a Comment
Read more

Saku Chosei High School's Hamaguchi Runs 13:31.62 at Nittai

2023 National High School Ekiden champion Saku Chosei H.S. was out in force Sunday in the 5000 m fast heats at the 317th Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama. 3rd-year Yamato Hamaguchi ran 13:31.62, the 4th-fastest time ever by a Japanese-born high schooler, and 3rd-year Tetsu Sasaki went under 14 minutes for the first time with an excellent 13:40.02. The race took place as light rain fell. Hamaguchi and Sasaki ran alongside African university and corporate league runners. From the start they were conservative, staying in the pack as the race went along. With splits of 2:42 and 1000 m and 8:11 at 3000 m the high school record of 13:22.99 set 2 years ago by Saku Chosei alum Hiroto Yoshioka was out of reach, but right til the last sprint Hamaguchi stayed in contact with the lead. Hamaguchi took almost 7 seconds off his 13:38.40 PB from last year, with Sasaki rewriting his 14:03.51 best by nearly 24 seconds. Both beat Yamanashi Gakuin H.S. 2nd-year Felix Muthiani , who ran
Post a Comment
Read more

New Year Ekiden Field is Set

We're deep into championship ekiden season. Over the last two weekends the six regions making up the corporate leagues held their qualifying races for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships. The New Year Ekiden is one of the only national-level championship ekidens that doesn't give its podium finishers auto-qualifying spots for the next year, meaning every team has to run the regional races every November. It's not hard to see how that eats into the fall marathon season and how doing it the same way they do for all the other big ekidens, including the corporate women's national championships later this month, and having the top teams auto-qualify, would open up the fall schedule and improve Japan's performances in men's marathoning. But it is what it is right now. In place of an auto-qualifying spot for podium finishers, the national corporate federation redistributes the wealth of qualifying slots available in each region based
Post a Comment
Read more