Running with three returning members of last year's course record-breaking team, Nagano pulled off another CR to win its 3rd-straight National Men's Ekiden title Sunday in Hiroshima thanks in large part to a stellar run from anchor Mebuki Suzuki from Komazawa University.
Last year's opening leg 3rd-placer Ryuto Kawahara of Nagasaki got things started with a 2:44 opening km on the 7.0 km First Stage, then let 2023 National High School Ekiden First Stage winner Sota Orita of Hyogo take over. Orita did most of the work through the middle part of the stage, then with 1.5 km to go Kawahara attacked and pulled away to break the 19:39 CR set by Sonata Nagashima last year by 8 seconds. It was one of those runs that makes the National Men's Ekiden great, with someone from a high school that isn't good enough to make Nationals taking down one of the big stars whose team did. In a four-way sprint for 2nd Nagano's Yamato Hamaguchi was 4th and Orita 5th, both one second under the old CR in 19:38.
Between Orita and his follow-up Ren Kitamura, Hyogo moved up to 1st on the 3.0 km Second Stage, where the only off note in Nagano's performance came from Yuki Nakazawa, 29th in 8:54. Over the next three stages the core from last year's Nagano lineup, Waseda University's Taishi Ito and Soma Nagahara and Shunpei Yamaguchi of 2023 National High School Ekiden champion Saku Chosei H.S. took over the lead, with Yamaguchi extending it to 55 seconds. En route, Jun Kasai of Osaka took down one of the oldest stage records in the race, running 23:22 for the 8.5 km Third Stage to go 4 seconds under Terukazu Omori's old CR from 2005.
Nagano's sixth runner Hideto Takizawa lost 7 seconds to Chiba, but while anchor Suzuki still inherited a 48-second lead he was 10 seconds off pace to break the overall CR. Powered by having gotten beaten both on his stage and overall at the Hakone Ekiden three weeks ago, Suzuki soloed a 36:52 for the 13.0 km anchor stage, erasing Kenta Oshima's 37:09 CR that had stood since 2004. Oshima had been teammates with Third Stage CR holder Omori at the now-defunct Kuroshio Tsushin Service corporate team, both setting records that took two decades to fall.
Crossing the line in 2:17:00, Suzuki took 10 seconds off Nagano's CR from last year's win, which had been 1 second under the CR it had set in its win the previous edition. With the three-peat Nagano also scored a tenth win in the 27 editions of the National Men's Ekiden to date, securing its place at the core of Japanese distance running.
Last year's runner-up Saitama did it again, briefly leading on the Third Stage with a good run from Toru Kubota and coming back up from 5th to 2nd in 2:19:11 thanks to anchor Tomoya Ogikubo. 4th last year, Chiba was one better this time at 3rd in 2:19:32. Fifth runner Rui Sasaki was the standout on the Chiba lineup, running the 2nd-fastest time on his stage to go from 6th to 2nd. Kyoto improved from 6th to 4th in 2:19:56, with Hyogo also up from 8th to 5th in 2:19:59 despite weak runs from corporate league team members Yuta Bando and Kazuki Muramoto.
Okayama dropped from 5th to 6th in 2:20:06, with Fukuoka breaking into the top 10 at 7th in 2:20:12. 3rd last year, Tokyo was never higher than 8th, there most of the way from the Third Stage to the finish in 2:20:19. 2:06 marathoner Kyohei Hosoya had a good run at 5th on the anchor stage to bring Ibaraki in one place up from last year at 9th in 2:20:44, with Osaka also breaking into the top 10 at 10th in 2:20:55.
And with that, championship ekiden season comes to an end. There are still other, smaller races over the next month or so and a few important ones in the summer, but for the most part the focus now shifts to open road races and the track until the fall.
29th National Men's Ekiden
Hiroshima, 21 January 2024
47 teams, 7 stages, 48.0 km
Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (H.S., 7.0 km)
1. Ryuto Kawahara (Nagasaki) - 19:31 - CR
2. Kaito Matsui (Saitama) - 19:37 (CR)
3. Riku Anjima (Gifu) - 19:38 (CR)
4. Yamato Hamaguchi (Nagano) - 19:38 (CR)
5. Sota Orita (Hyogo) - 19:38 (CR)
Second Stage (J.H.S., 3.0 km)
1. Yuma Tanaka (Wakayama) - 8:20
2. Riku Umeda (Hyogo) - 8:38
2. Ren Kitamura (Okayama) - 8:38
2. Ruion Tsubaki (Fukushima) - 8:38
5. Keigo Yamamoto (Tottori) - 8:39
Third Stage (open, 8.5 km)
1. Jun Kasai (Osaka) - 23:22 - CR
2. Toru Kubota (Saitama) - 23:32
2. Takashi Nanba (Fukui) - 23:32
4. Kotaro Shinohara (Chiba) - 23:38
5. Kazuya Shiojiri (Gunma) - 23:39
6. Kotaro Kondo (Aichi) - 23:44
7. Shota Nakano (Hiroshima) - 23:46
8. Yusuke Tamura (Yamaguchi) - 23:47
9. Taishi Ito (Nagano) - 23:50
10. Asahi Kuroda (Okayama) - 23:51
Fourth Stage (H.S., 5.0 km)
1. Soma Nagahara (Nagano) - 14:03
2. Yota Mashiko (Fukushima) - 14:21
3. Aoi Higaki (Okayama) - 14:22
4. Nozomi Sugaya (Tokyo) - 14:29
5. Sho Fukutomi (Hyogo) - 14:36
Fifth Stage (H.S., 8.5 km)
1. Junpei Yamaguchi (Nagano) - 24:47
2. Rui Suzuki (Chiba) - 24:54
3. Shoki Yamaguchi (Fukuoka) - 24:59
4. Kaisei Okada (Kyoto) - 25:05
5. Riito Ikema (Miyazaki) - 25:21
Sixth Stage (J.H.S., 3.0 km)
1. Sei Yoshida (Hokkaido) - 8:40
2. Rei Otoshi (Hiroshima) - 8:45
3. Daiki Miyakawa (Chiba) - 8:49
3. Tasuki Iwasawa (Gunma) - 8:49
5. Kain Inagaki (Hyogo) - 8:51
5. Hakuga Deguchi (Tokyo) - 8:51
Seventh Stage (open, 13.0 km)
1. Mebuki Suzuki (Nagano) - 36:52 - CR
2. Shunya Kikuchi (Tochigi) - 37:35
3. Tomoya Ogikubo (Saitama) - 37:37
4. Yuito Yamamoto (Niigata) - 37:50
5. Kyohei Hosoya (Ibaraki) - 37:55
6. Tomonori Yamaguchi (Fukushima) - 38:01
6. Jin Yuasa (Miyazaki) - 38:01
8. Takashi Ichida (Kagoshima) - 38:03
8. Hiroki Yamanaka (Shiga) - 38:03
10. Sodai Shimizu (Kyoto) - 38:07
10. Yuma Nishizawa (Shizuoka) - 38:07
Top Team Results
1. Nagano - 2:17:00 - CR
2. Saitama - 2:19:11
3. Chiba - 2:19:32
4. Kyoto - 2:19:56
5. Hyogo - 2:19:59
6. Okayama - 2:20:06
7. Fukuoka - 2:20:12
8. Tokyo - 2:20:19
9. Ibaraki - 2:20:44
10. Osaka - 2:20:55
11. Kagoshima - 2:20:57
12. Nagasaki - 2:21:12
13. Fukushima - 2:21:18
14. Hiroshima - 2:21:20
15. Gunma - 2:21:49
© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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