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Koku Gakuin's Hirabayashi Holds Off Komazawa and Aoyama Gakuin in Anchor Stage Showdown at Izumo Ekiden

There was a lot of action at the 36th running of the Izumo Ekiden Monday in Shimane, but it really came down to an anchor stage showdown between three of the biggest names on the university men's collegiate circuit. For the first five legs it was mostly between two-time defending champ Komazawa University and the top four-ranked Ivy League Select Team , Aoyama Gakuin University , Koku Gakuin University and Soka University . All of them except the Ivy League alternate stages up front with the Ivies in the mix in 2nd thanks to excellent runs from its two lead-off runners Kieran Tuntivate and Will Battershill . AGU's Masaya Tsurukawa took the 8.0 km First Stage, Soka's Hibiki Yoshida put them into 1st on the 5.8 km Second Stage, AGU's Asahi Kuroda retook the lead on the 8.5 km Third Stage, Izumo native Aoi Ito put Komazawa out front on the 6.2 km Fourth Stage, and KGU's Ryuto Uehara went to the front on the 6.4 km Fifth Stage. That set up an incredible matchup
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101st Hakone Ekiden Qualifier Half Marathon Preview

Ekiden season rolls on, and for everyone who didn't make the top 10 at the Hakone Ekiden's 100th running this past January that means a trip to western Tokyo's Showa Linen Park this Saturday to line up on the runway of the air defense base next door to try to qualify for the 101st Hakone Ekiden . The 43 Tokyo-area universities at the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier Half Marathon , the Yosenkai, each run 10-12 athletes and are scored on the total times of their first 10 finishers. The 10 fastest teams go to Hakone, and the rest go home except for the 10 fastest individuals from non-qualifying universities, who get the privilege of running as part of a select team. NTV will broadcast the Yosenkai and its dramatic announcement ceremony live starting at 9:25 a.m. local time Saturday. If you've got a VPN you should be all set. If not, try mov3.co/ntv . JRN will be on-site at the Yosenkai to cover it live. Chuo University , Tokai University and Tokyo Kokusai University look sure
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Rikkyo University Wins Hot and Humid Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai Qualifying Race

With high humidity, mostly sunny skies and temps reported as high as 30˚ it was just too hot for fast times at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon qualifying race for January's 101st Hakone Ekiden. Individual winner and last year's 1:00:16 CR setter  Shadrack Kipkemei from Nihon University and runner-up Brian Kipyegon of Yamanashi Gakuin University lasting the whole way on sub-1:01 pace and going 1:00:59 and 1:01:02 was really exceptional given the weather, but you could see how tough it was given that only five people went under 1:02 and seven under 1:03 compared to 11 and 38 last year. Top Japanese finisher and 1:00:31 half marathoner Reishi Yoshida of Chuo Gakuin University was only 10th in 1:03:29 and collegiate record holder Richard Etir of Tokyo Kokusai University 11th in 1:03:35. But ultimately the Yosenkai is about team scoring based on the total times of each school's first ten finishers, so while the unseasonal summertime conditions held times b
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