Skip to main content

2019 Hakone Ekiden Winner Tokai University Deep in Summer Training to Break Back Into Top 5 This Season


They say in Hakone Ekiden circles that the team that wins the summer wins Hakone. Aiming to break a three-year streak of finishing off the podium at the main event, 2019 Hakone winner Tokai University is aiming to take the top position at the Oct. 19 Yosenkai Hakone qualifier half marathon. Led by 4th-year captain Yuto Kajitani, the Tokai team is putting in more mileage this summer than usual.

The Shonan-based Tokai's 2019 Hakone title was its first-ever win at Japan's biggest race. Since then it has finished as high as 2nd and 5th, but in the last three years it was 11th, 15th and 11th and missed out on top 10 and a guaranteed place at the following year's Hakone. To try to get back to its winning ways the team is training this summer in Nagano at Lake Shirakaba and at altitude in Sugadaira.

"This season our goal is to make top 5 at both the National University Ekiden and the Hakone Ekiden," said Kajitani. Everyone on the team is working actively to make that goal a reality. We've got a great vibe this year." At a team meeting during the training camp, Kajitani stressed to the other athletes the importance of preparation and consistency. "If you prepare properly before practice starts you can maximize the effectiveness of the workout and reduce the chance of getting injured," he said. "Doing that consistently is critical."

Last year Kajitani's teammate Haruta Koshi was captain as a 3rd-year, but at the start of this year Kajitani was elected to replace Koshi as captain. "I thought that Koshi would be better off concentrating on the running side of things, and that to lead the team to becoming better I should take over as captain," he explained.

Although core member Shotaro Ishihara graduated last year and moved on to the SGH corporate team, this year's lineup still features Judah Hyodo, 5th on the First Stage at Hakone this year, and Hisaya Hanaoka, 13th on the Second Stage. In June Tokai was the top team at the National University Ekiden qualifier with that lineup.

"We're aiming to be the top team at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai too," said head coach Hayashi Morozumi. "The 10 teams that made the podium at Hakone are still ranked above that, so if we're not the top team at the Yosenkai are at least in the top 3 then it will be hard to be competitive at Hakone itself." Last year Morozumi didn't prioritize what place Tokai finished at the qualifier and they just scraped through to Hakone in 10th. But this season is different, and success this fall depends on doing what needs to be done this summer.

source article:



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

2026 Tokyo Marathon Elite Field

The Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon has great fields this year, so let's get right to it. The women's field has 3 of last year's top 10, winner for the 2nd year in a row and Tokyo CR holder Sutume Asefa Kebede , 3rd-placer and 2025 Chicago winner Hawi Feysa , and 5th-placer and 2025 Berlin winner Rosemary Wanjiru , plus 2024 Valencia winner Megertu Alemu , 2025 Prague winner Bertukan Welde , 2024 Paris winner Mestawut Fikir , 2024 Osaka winner Waganesh Mekasha , former WR holder Brigid Kosgei , and a lot more. Japanese hopes pretty much go to all-time #7 Ai Hosoda , 2:20:31 in Berlin 2024 but who announced this month that she is retiring after Tokyo despite having qualified for the 2028 Olympic marathon trials with her 2:23:27 for 6th in Sydney last year. Other internationals include Canadian Malindi Elmore , American Sara Hall , a big Chinese group led by Yuyu Xia , Poland's Aleksandra Brzezińska and Australian Vanessa Wilson . The men's race has 5 of last year's top 1...
4 comments
Read more

Measuring Marathon Courses by Bicycle

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0110&f=column_0110_034.shtml translated by Brett Larner The full marathon is a sport where you compete over 42.195 km, but how do they go about measuring that distance?  Today we're going to look a little bit at how they go about certifying the distance of a marathon. The reality is that major international marathons use a bicycle to measure the distance.  This rule is an international standard, and the same method of measurement is used everywhere.  It was put into place in 1986.  In order to ensure that the same method is used everywhere, a bicycle that meets IAAF specifications must be used for measurement. In the case of Japan's major marathons, to be certain that the distance is correct a provisional measurement is first made.  Before the course is certified using a bicycle the course is measured using a 50 m-long length of wire to determine that it is in fact 42.195 km.  When a bicycle is u...
2 comments
Read more

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...
2 comments
Read more