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

Japan's First Goldless Day - Asian Athletics Championships Day Four Highlights

Day 4 of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships was the first without a single gold medal going to Japan, but there were still enough silvers and bronzes to go around. Robyn Lauren Brown of the Philippines outclassed the rest of the women's 400 mH final field, taking gold in 57.50. Eri Utsunomiya and Ami Yamamoto made it a Japanese 2-3, Utsunomiya running 57.73 for silver and Yamamoto 57.80 for bronze. Yusaku Kodama also scored silver in the men's 400 mH, running 48.96 behind Qatari winner Bassem Hemeida 's 48.64. Yuki Yamasaki won bronze in the heptathlon with 5696 points, Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina taking gold in 6098 and Swapna Barman silver in 5840. Teammate Karin Odama was 4th in 5487. Another bronze came in the mixed 4x400 m relay, with Japan running 3:15.71 behind India's 3:14.70 and Sri Lanka's 3:15.41. Naoto Hasegawa and Ryoichi Akamatsu both cleared 2.23 m in the men's high jump, Hasegawa finishing 4th overall and Akamatsu 5th. ...

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