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The 100th Hakone Ekiden by the Numbers


Josai University's Yuito Yamamoto was the only individual athlete to set a new course record for one of the Hakone Ekiden's ten stages, but the 100th was still a record-breaking edition in other ways. Both defending champion Komazawa University and eventual winner Aoyama Gakuin University broke Aoyama Gakuin's old record of 5:21:16 for the 107.5 km, ~800 m uphill Day One course, Komazawa running a strong 5:20:51 but AGU destroying them in 5:18:13.

Day Two wasn't especially fast, but with a 3:03 margin on the overall CR from its Day One win, AGU went on to take 2:17 off its 2022 record of 10:43:42 for the complete 217.1 km course in 10:41:25, an average of 2:57.3/km. Komazawa also went under the 3:00/km barrier in 10:48:00, 2:59.1/km, a time that would have been good enough to win almost any previous edition and only 49 seconds slower than its winning time last year. A total of nine teams broke 11 hours, consistent with the explosion in depth since 2020.

Yamamoto won the 100th Hakone's MVP award for breaking the uphill Fifth Stage record for the second year in a row, but there's no question that the biggest runs of the 100th Hakone were on the 21.4 km Third Stage. 1500 m, 3000 m, 5000 m and 10000 m U20 NR holder Keita Sato ran an amazing 1:00:13, equivalent to a 59:22 half marathon, 38 seconds under the NR and beating the previous fastest-ever by a Japanese athlete by 42 seconds in his first attempt at a distance longer than 11.1 km. Given how he ran in his 27:28.50 debut for 10000 m in November that wasn't a major surprise, but in a stunning upset AGU's Aoi Ota ran him down to take the lead, clocking 59:47, only 22 seconds off Vincent Yegon's CR and equivalent to a 58:56 half marathon.

It's hard to understand how he did it. The Third Stage is downhill at the beginning, but there was no substantial wind, and Ota's 5000 m and 10000 m bests were only 13:53.10 and 28:20.63 compared to Sato's 13:22.91 and 27:28.50. There was nothing there to suggest that Ota was capable of running over a minute faster than the Japanese half marathon NR, except maybe that he was wearing the new Adidas Adizero Pro Evo 1. Given the kinds of times everyone else ran on the Third Stage it's safe to say that while AGU was strong overall, the majority of its final 2:17 under the old overall CR came thanks to Ota.

Ignoring the two mountain stages and normalizing the other 20.9 km to 23.1 km stages to the half marathon distance, a total of 67 people ran the equivalent of a sub-63 half marathon, exactly the same as last year, and 40 ran sub-62, the same as in 2022. The slowest of the 23 runners on then 21.3 km First Stage, Ryuto Hirashima of Nittai University, ran the equivalent of 1:02:59 compared to his half marathon PB of 1:03:47. A total of 15 people ran the equivalent of sub-61 and 2 sub-60, both new records, and Ota followed Yegon as the second Hakone runner in history under 59 minutes. For comparison, out of the 41 men on the 21.9 km long stage at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate championships, with a strong tailwind 37 ran the equivalent of sub-63, 29 went sub-62, 12 sub-61 and 2 sub-60. Stage winner Tomoki Ota of champion team Toyota ran 59:25, 3 seconds slower than Komazawa's Sato.

All 40 runners who ran sub-62 at Hakone, with their half marathon PBs in parentheses and the equivalent half marathon to what they ran on their Hakone:

First Stage (21.3 km)
Kotaro Shinohara (3rd yr., Komazawa Univ., 1:00:11) - 1:00:28 - all-time #2
Daisuke Kuwata (4th yr., Soka Univ., 1:03:07) - 1:00:50
Hayato Nomura (4th yr., Josai Univ., 1:03:51) - 1:00:51
Shota Nishimura (4th yr., Nihon Univ., 1:02:53) - 1:00:53
Juda Hyodo (2nd yr., Tokai Univ., 1:03:33) - 1:00:58
Stephen Lemayan (1st yr,, Surugadai Univ., 1:01:56) - 1:00:59
Shota Nishiwaki (4th yr., Teikyo Univ., 1:02:25) - 1:01:01
Shuto Ominato (1st yr., Meiji Univ., 1:02:54) - 1:01:02
Tomoki Aramaki (2nd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ., 1:03:11) - 1:01:02
Ryuji Miura (4th yr., Juntendo Univ., 1:01:41) - 1:01:03
Yoshiteru Takatsuki (4th yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ., 1:02:19) - 1:01:10
Junpei Maseda (2nd yr., Waseda Univ., 1:04:50) - 1:01:18
Chio Nishikawa (3rd yr., Daito Bunka Univ., 1:02:19) - 1:01:22
Kodai Miyaoka (3rd yr., Hosei Univ., 1:02:07) - 1:01:28
Keishun Kushima (4th yr., Toyo Univ., 1:03:25) - 1:01:33
Sunao Kitamura (4th yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ., 1:02:23) - 1:01:38
Kenzo Ijichi (4th yr., Koku Gakuin Univ., 1:02:22) - 1:01:59

Second Stage (23.1 km)
Asahi Kuroda (2nd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ., 1:03:02) - 1:00:24 - all-time #4
Mebuki Suzuki (4th yr., Komazawa Univ., 1:03:07) - 1:00:35 - all-time #9
Kiyoto Hirabayashi (3rd yr., Koku Gakuin Univ., 1:01:50) - 1:00:41
Tomonori Yamaguchi (2nd yr., Waseda Univ., 1:01:16) - 1:00:45
Stephen Muthini (1st yr., Soka Univ., no half PB) - 1:00:56
Ren Umezaki (3rd yr., Toyo Univ., 1:02:41) - 1:00:58
Neo Namiki (4th yr., Tokyo Nogyo Univ., 1:02:35) - 1:01:15
Shoya Saito (2nd yr., Josai Univ., 1:03:18) - 1:01:26
Brian Kipyegon (1st yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ., 1:01:07) - 1:01:32
Shadrack Kipkemei (1st yr., Nihon Univ., 1:00:16) - 1:01:40
Rei Matsunaga (4th yr., Hosei Univ., 1:01:56) - 1:01:42
Toru Kubota (4th yr., Daito Bunka Univ., 1:02:23) - 1:01:44
Hisaya Hanaoka (2nd yr., Tokai Univ., 1:03:23) - 1:01:46

Third Stage (21.4 km)
Aoi Ota (3rd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ., no half PB) - 58:57 - all-time #2
Keita Sato (2nd yr., Komazawa Univ., no half PB) - 59:22 - all-time #3
Victor Kimutai (2nd yr., Josai Univ., 1:02:21) - 1:00:37 - all-time #10
Fu Ando (4th yr., Nihon Univ., 1:03:57) - 1:01:04
Rui Aoki (2nd yr., Koku Gakuin Univ., 1:02:02) - 1:01:04
Ryota Kobayashi (3rd yr., Toyo Univ., 1:03:42) - 1:01:11
Fumiya Tsuji (4th yr., Waseda Univ., 1:03:56) - 1:01:46
Kento Baba (2nd yr., Rikkyo Univ., 1:02:35) - 1:01:55

Fourth Stage (20.9 km)
Issei Sato (4th yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ., 1:03:05) - 1:01:45 - all-time #7

Seventh Stage (21.3 km)
Shunsuke Yoshii (2nd yr., Chuo Univ., 1:06:59) - 1:01:52 - all-time #4

Other runners were over sub-62 half marathon pace or ran mountain stages but still set all-time top ten marks:

Fourth Stage (20.9 km)
Kazuki Matsuyama (4th yr., Toyo Univ., 1:00:43) - 1:02:22 - all-time #9

Fifth Stage (20.8 km, ~800 m elevation gain)
Yuito Yamamoto (4th yr., Josai. Univ., 1:01:34) - 1:10:14 - CR
Hiroki Wakabayashi (3rd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ., 1:01:25) - 1:10:32 - all-time #2
Ibuki Kaneko (4th yr., Komazawa Univ., 1:03:32) - 1:11:45 - all-time #9

Sixth Stage (20.8 km, ~800 m elevation loss)
Kazuma Takeda (3rd yr., Hosei Univ., 1:02:48) - 58:52 - all-time #6

Eighth Stage (21.4 km)
Shota Shiode (2nd yr., Aoyama Gakuin Univ., 1:02:01) - 1:03:06 - all-time #3

Tenth Stage (23.0 km)
Ryotaro Kishimoto (2nd yr., Toyo Univ., 1:03:39) - 1:03:10 - all-time #6

Going back to team results, both Aoyama Gakuin and Komazawa cleared 3:00/km average for the full 217.1 km, ten-stage course. At the New Year Ekiden, 9 of the 41 teams were slower than 3:00/km for 100.0 km in seven stages. AGU's pace of 2:57.3/km would have been good for 14th. Cutting out the two mountain stages and its slowest remaining runner, its pace for 152.5 km in seven stages would have been 2:54.8/km. That would have beaten New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Asahi Kasei 4:51:21 to 4:51:27, but with the AGU runners averaging 50% longer stages. Komazawa would have beaten 5th-place Mitsubishi Juko. 4:53:40 to 4:53:45. A little more parity in length and at least 2nd-placerHonda, 4:51:11, would definitely have been in AGU's range. As we head into 2024, the revolution that began in 2013 doesn't show any sign of slowing down.

© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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