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Meijo Beats the Odds for Record-Breaking 7th-Straight National University Women's Ekiden Title


Six-time defending national champion Meijo University came to Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden national university women's championships with the weakest team since before its reign started in 2017, but with a flawless team performance that saw all six women on the team make top 4 on their stage Meijo beat the odds to go home with a record-breaking 7th-straight national title.

Previous dynasty Ritsumeikan University came out hard with stage wins on the first two legs of the 38.0 km race, but a win on the 5.8 km Third Stage by Meijo 2nd-year Asuka Ishimatsu on her 20th birthday turned a 6-second deficit to Ritsumeikan into a 31-second lead. That closed to 15 seconds by the end of the Fifth Stage, but another stage win from anchor Nanase Tanimoto was enough to give Meijo the win by 52 seconds.

2nd eight times in the last 10 years, Daito Bunka University landed there again thanks to a stage win on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage by Sarah Wanjiru and a wicked kick over the last 100 m on the track from anchor Mariya Noda, who caught Ritsumeikan's Asa Kobayashi steps before the line to put DBU into 2nd again and Ritsumeikan 3rd with both schools clocking the same time.

Josai University surprised with a 4th-place finish, anchor Hinata Kaneko running down Nittai University anchor Sakurako Yanai to do it. 3rd last year, Osaka Gakuin University was 6th this time, moving up steadily after a rocky 19th-place opening leg and bumping Kansai University down to 7th on the anchor stage. Tohoku Fukushi University made the Sendai locals happy with its first-ever podium finish at 8th, 1st-year Amisa Murayama moving them into that position and 1st-year anchor Hikari Kobayashi keeping them there. Tamagawa University was 9th and the first non-podium finisher, 29 seconds behind Tohoku Fukushi.

So if a weaker Meijo can still beat the best everyone else can bring, is there any hope of seeing someone else break them anytime soon? On the one hand, not really. Meijo used no 4th-years today, and with the exception of Tanimoto, a 3rd-year, the rest of the team was made up of all 1st and 2nd-years. They could run the same team next year, and even if lead runner Nanaka Yonezawa and Tanimoto are at less than 100% again they'd still have a margin of error to play with.

On the other hand, Daito Bunka, Ritsumeikan, Josai, Nittai and Osaka Gakuin all had one runner finish in a double-digit place, i.e. they were all one runner short of having a team that could compete with today's Meijo. Daito Bunka in particular ran five 1st years and one 3rd year, and the 3rd year, Momona Yotsumoto, was the weak link at 12th on her stage. That's a team that can come back stronger and stronger. Maybe not next year, but in two, or three, Daito Bunka has the basic material to finally take the step beyond 2nd.

The next major ekiden on the university women's schedule will be the Dec. 30 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, the other national-level race on the collegiate calendar. Meijo has won the last 5 years there too, ending a Ritsumeikan dictatorship that saw Ritsumeikan win 11 of the event's first 12 runnings. Mt. Fuji features 7 stages, so the bar will be even higher for fielding a team that can perform on all seven. It's up to Daito Bunka, Ritsumeikan, and the other top 5 finishers today to come up with the people to take Meijo down.

41st Morinomiyako Ekiden

National University Women's Ekiden Championships
Sendai, Miyagi, 29 Oct. 2023
26 teams, 6 stages, 38.0 km

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (6.6 km)
1. Tomo Muramatsu (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 21:21
2. Nanaka Yonezawa (Meijo Univ.) - 21:24
3. Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.) - 21:37

Second Stage (4.0 km)
1. Sayuki Ota (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 12:55
2. Kaede Rikimaru (Meijo Univ.) - 12:58
3. Machiko Iwasaki (Takushoku Univ.) - 13:03

Third Stage (5.8 km)
1. Asuka Ishimatsu (Meijo Univ.) - 18:52
2. Momoa Yamada (Tamagawa Univ.) - 18:53
3. Kurumi Yoda (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 18:56

Fourth Stage (4.8 km)
1. Kokoro Nakachi (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 15:53
2. Ichigo Ishikawa (Josai Univ.) - 15:56
3. Momoka Tsutano (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 15:58

Fifth Stage (9.2 km)
1. Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 29:20
2. Risa Yamazaki (Nittai Univ.) - 29:53
3. Hikaru Kitagawa (Osaka Geijutsu Univ.) - 30:13

Sixth Stage (7.6 km)
1. Nanase Tanimoto (Meijo Univ.) - 24:46
2. Asa Kobayashi (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 25:08
3. Hinata Kaneko (Josai Univ.) - 25:10

Team Results - top 8 auto-qualify for 2024
1. Meijo University - 2:04:29
2. Daito Bunka University - 2:05:21
3. Ritsumeikan Universtiy - 2:05:21
4. Josai University - 2:06:06
5. Nittai University - 2:06:45
6. Osaka Gakuin University - 2:07:19
7. Kansai University - 2:07:44
8. Tohoku Fukushi University - 2:08:57
-----
9. Tamagawa University - 2:09:26
10. Juntendo University - 2:09:45
11. Tokyo Nogyo University - 2:09:47
12. Takushoku University - 2:10:03
13. Toyo University - 2:10:05
14. Osaka Geijutsu University - 2:10:12
15. Chuo University - 2:10:51
16. Asia University - 2:11:14
17. Chukyo Gakuin University - 2:11:14
18. Tsukuba University - 2:11:31
19. Kantaiheiyo University - 2:12:00
20. Kansai Gaikokugo University - 2:12:14
21. Fukuoka University - 2:13:50
22. Kyoto Koka Joshi University - 2:14:05
23. Josai Kokusai University - 2:15:45
24. Niigata Iryo Fukushi University - 2:17:07
OP - Tohoku Region Select Team - 2:20:26
25. Sapporo Kokusai University - 2:20:53 

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Comments

Fisico said…
Damn, seeing Sugasaki Namika last few hundreds meters in the third leg was such a painful watch, hope she's alright, it didn't look like specific injury but more that she was physically unable to lift her legs anymore
Osaka Geijutsu also finish 1mn15s away from 8th so she's probably devastated about it :(
October 30, 2023 at 2:28 AM
Stefan said…
As I was watching the race unfold I was expecting one of Meijo's runners to under perform and bring the rest of the field a lot closer but it never happened. Full credit to them and with the depth of talent within the team they will be difficult to beat at the Mt Fuji exiden. The final 52 second margin was not the margin I was expecting. Nanase Tanimoto was smiling with a couple of kilometres left in her leg which indicates there definitely is some wiggle room to extending this margin if required. Scary stuff for the opposing teams.

Great run in the 5th leg by Sarah Wanjiru from Daito Bunka Univ. to bring them into the mix. Her running style is so deceptive. At one moment, I thought something was amiss because her cadence looked slow but her stride is so long. She is stealthy fast! However, she was still 1min 20 seconds outside of Seira Fuwa's incredible 28:00 course record on that leg 2 years ago.

I thought Haruko Hosaka did very well in the 1st leg to finish fourth in a time of 21:45 given her fall on the track very early on. It looked inconspicous when it happened but I just viewed her twitter and there is significant bruising on both knees.
https://twitter.com/0423haruko/status/1718603402253664645

After looking at the finishing time over the past 7 years, it seems like the other teams are not improving rather Meijo is just coming back to the field ever so slightly which is disappointing as a viewer who wants to witness overall times come down and progression from all teams.
2023 Meijo 2:04:29
2022 Meijo 2:03:11
2021 Meijo 2:02:59
2020 Meijo 2:02:57
2019 Meijo 2:04:34
2018 Meijo 2:05:26
2017 Meijo 2:05:15

Thanks Brett for the wonderful recap. It was another excellent athletic event worth watching.
October 30, 2023 at 6:52 AM
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