National Champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. Girls Win Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden

The 2023 National High School Ekiden champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. girls ended their season with another win, taking 1st at the 35th Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden Sunday in Fukuoka. Running against corporate league competition like 2023 Queens Ekiden winner Sekisui Kagaku and high school Nationals 3rd and 4th placers Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. and Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S., Kamimura Gakuen got off to a slow start when leading runner Rina Kurokami was only 13th on her stage and 24 seconds off the lead.

But having delivered Kamimura Gakuen the national title last month with an incredible anchor stage run, its second runner Caroline Kariba showed again that she's a budding international-level talent, chopping 18 seconds off the 3.8 km Second Stage CR, an amazing 47 seconds fastest than the previous record by a high school athlete. That was enough to put Kamimura Gakuen out front by 18 seconds over the Kyocera corporate team and 42 seconds ahead of Kunei Joshi Gakuin. Its lead stayed steady over the next two stages, with Kyocera hanging on to the top corporate spot and Ritsumeikan Uji moving up to 2nd high school 6 seconds back from Kyocera.

Corporate teams ended the race with a 10.4 km anchor stage that was split into two parts for the high school division. Higo Ginko anchor Miku Sakai turned in a stage-winning 33:26 to overtake Kyocera anchor Mio Kuroda and Ritsumeikan Uji's Momoka Onishi, crossing the finish line in 2nd overall in 1:28:15. Onishi was only 4 seconds behind, giving Ritsumeikan Uji 3rd overall in 1:28:19. Kyocera was 2nd in the corporate division in 1:28:42 and Sysmex 3rd in 1:29:25, with 3rd-place high school team Kunei Joshi Gakuin holding Sysmex off by 6 seconds for 5th overall in 1:29:19. Running a mostly B-team, national corporate champion Sekisui Kagaku was 9th overall in 1:30:37 despite an 11:37 CR on the 3.8 km Fourth Stage by Rina Sasaki.

35th Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 21 January, 2024

31 teams, 5 stages (6 for H.S. teams), 27.2 km

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (5.3 km) - Misaki Shitamori (Kitakyushu Shiritsu H.S.) - 17:13

Second Stage (3.8 km) - Caroline Kariba (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) - 11:04 - CR

Third Stage (3.9 km) - Yumi Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 12:42

Fourth Stage (3.8 km) - Rina Sasaki (Sekisui Kagaku) - 11:37 - CR

Fifth Stage (open, 10.4 km) - Miku Sakai (Higo Ginko) - 33:26

Fifth Stage (H.S., 5.9 km) - Chiseno Ikeda (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 19:26

Sixth Stage (H.S., 4.5 km) - Rin Setoguchi (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) - 14:29

Top Team Results

High School

1. Kamimura Gakuen H.S. - 1:27:54

2. Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. - 1:28:19

3. Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. - 1:29:19

4. Ginga Gakuin H.S. - 1:30:19

5. Kitakyushu Shiritsu H.S. - 1:31:47

6. Suma Gakuen H.S. - 1:31:54

7. Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. - 1:32:24

8. Yamada H.S. - 1:33:44

9. Luther Gakuin H.S. - 1:34:00

10. Kyushu Kokusai H.S. - 1:34:36

Open

1. Higo Ginko - 1:28:15

2. Kyocera - 1:28:42

3. Sysmex - 1:29:25

4. Iwatani Sangyo - 1:30:07

5. Sekisui Kagaku - 1:30:37

6. Universal Entertainment - 1:30:41

7. Route Inn Hotels - 1:31:57

8. Toto - 1:32:34

9. Kitakyushu Select Team - 1:36:38

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

10000 m National Championships Preview

Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading

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