Skip to main content

Princess Ekiden Preview and Streaming



The Princess Ekiden, the official qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden national corporate women's championships, happens Sunday in rural Fukuoka. 31 teams of 6 women will be racing 42.195 km in pursuit of 16 places at Queens alongside the top tier of podium placers from last year's national championships. TBS will be streaming the race live on Youtube starting at 12:10 p.m., and if you've got a VPN you should be all set. Live results will be posted here.

There's a general sense that Japanese women aren't where they used to be, but counter to that trend are a lot of new women's ekiden teams trying to get off the ground. Along with some of the long-established powers like past national champions Universal Entertainment, Tenmaya and Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo, there are relatively young teams like Nitori, Senko and Tokyo Metro trying to qualify for the first time, and newcomers like Bears Camellia making their debuts. Next year expect to see at least one more, Shin Nihon Jusetsu.

Last year only 44 seconds separated 19th-place Sysmex from final qualifier Higo Ginko in 16th, making the question of who's likely to fill in the bottom end of the qualifying list an open one. But it's a little more complicated this year. Any team that had someone qualified for last weekend's MGC Olympic marathon trials will auto-qualify for Queens as long as they finish the Princess Ekiden. That would cover Uniqlo, Universal, Tenmaya, Starts, Wacoal, Otsuka Seiyaku, Hitachi, and Kyocera, half the qualifying spots.

Those are all teams that would likely qualify anyway, so you could argue the special rule this won't change the results that much. But it's not a given that they'll all finish. Kyocera DNFd last year while running 15th when anchor Mei Shirai suffered a stress fracture. But the dynamic will be a bit different, at any rate, as it's feasible that at least one of the teams qualifying via the MGC route finishes outside the top 16.

  1. Kyudenko
  2. Uniqlo
  3. Universal Entertainment
  4. Yamada Holdings
  5. Tenmaya
  6. Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo
  7. Iwatani Sangyo
  8. Starts
  9. Wacoal
  10. Daiso
  11. Otsuka Seiyaku
  12. Route Inn Hotels
  13. Hitachi
  14. Shimamura
  15. Higo Ginko
  16. 18 Ginko
  17. Nitori
  18. Sysmex
  19. Senko
  20. SID Group
  21. Noritz
  22. Canon
  23. Kagoshima Ginko
  24. Comodi Iida
  25. Tokyo Metro
  26. Aichi Denki
  27. Toto
  28. Memolead
  29. Kyocera
  30. Bears Camellia
  31. Ehime Ginko
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...
2 comments
Read more