Sunday is the Princess Ekiden, the official qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden, the season-ending national championship race for corporate women's teams. The top 8 placers at last year's Queens Ekiden, Sekisui Kagaku, Japan Post, Panasonic, Shiseido, Daihatsu, Daiichi Seimei, Tenmaya and Iwatani Sangyo, auto-qualified for 2024, leaving the rest of the league's teams to line up in Fukuoka at the Princess Ekiden in hopes of joining them. 30 teams will compete for 16 places at the Queens Ekiden, each with a team of 6 running a total of 42.195 km. TBS is broadcasting the race live starting at 11:50, with streaming on Youtube.
16th at Queens last year, Kyudenko has scratched from Sunday's race due to athlete injuries preventing them from having enough people ready to run. 22nd at Queens, Yamada Holdings is also out because it couldn't field 6 runners, one reason being the transfer of one of its star runners, Sakiho Tsutsui, to Universal Entertainment. Their absence opens to door for two of the teams on the cusp to make it this time.
Up top on the entry list it's pretty safe to assume that at least the top 10 teams will make it. #1-ranked Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo's entry list includes 5000 m Paris Olympian Wakana Kabasawa, and former collegiate 10000 m record holder Narumi Kobayashi is also on their list after a long time away with injury. #3-ranked Uniqlo features 1500 m Paris Olympic team member Yume Goto.
Tsutsui isn't on Universal's roster, but down near the bottom of the top 10 Shimamura's list does include recent transfer Yuka Ando. The next team below them, Hitachi, doesn't have a Kenyan in its lineup this time around, leaving it vulnerable to some of the teams closer to the cutoff line like Nitori and Toyota Jidoshokki that do.
Speaking of vulnerability, bib #14 Wacoal is hurt by Ando's transfer to Shimamura, and with only 7 runners on its list it's a little susceptible to potential race day sickness or injury issues. Below them, as the 15th and 16th-ranked Toyota Jidoshokki and Daiso stand to benefit from Kyudenko and Yamada's DNS status.
Past that point, the list includes formerly strong teams like Sysmex, Noritz, Toto and Denso, any of which would love to make it back into the fold, bank teams 18 Ginko, Kagoshima Ginko and Higo Ginko, and relative newcomers like Bears, Tokyo Metro, and first-timers Shin Nihon Jusetsu Group. SNJG has exactly six runners on its entry list and is even more vulnerable to a race morning setback than Wacoal.
Princess Ekiden Start List
Fukuoka, 20 Oct. 2024
30 teams, 6 stages, 42.195 km
top 16 qualify for Queens Ekiden
1. Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo
2. Edion
3. Uniqlo
4. Route Inn Hotels
5. Starts
6. Otsuka Seiyaku
7. Universal Entertainment
9. Kyocera
10. Shimamura
11. Hitachi
12. Senko
13. Nitori
14. Wacoal
15. Canon
16. Toyota Jidoshokki
17. Daiso
18. Sysmex
19. Ehime Ginko
20. Bears
21. 18 Ginko
22. Kagoshima Ginko
23. SID Group
24. Tokyo Metro
25. Noritz
26. Memolead
27. Toto
28. Aichi Denki
29. Higo Ginko
30. Denso
31. Shin Nihon Jusetsu Group
© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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