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Uniqlo Leads National Championship Qualifiers at Princess Ekiden


A day after the qualifying race for January's Hakone Ekiden, the corporate leagues held their qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden national championship. 30 teams raced the 6-stage, 42.195 km Princess Ekiden to try for the 16 spots left alongside the 8 auto-qualifiers from last year's Queens Ekiden.

After a slow start Uniqlo moved up to take the win thanks to a stage win from Paris Olympian Yume Goto on the 3.6 km Second Stage, a good run from 4th runner Yumi Yoshikawa to move into 3rd, and a big run from new recruit Dolphine Omare to run down Edion and Otsuka Seiyaku for 1st. 33 seconds up on Edion at the start of the 6.695 km anchor stage, Uniqlo had a scare from Olympian Wakana Kabasawa who started for Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo 50 seconds back in 5th. Kabasawa turned in a stage-winning run and got to within 5 seconds of Uniqlo anchor Ayaka Kato with 1 km to go, but Kato heard her coming and rallied to hang on for the win in 2:19:16. Mitsui Sumitomo was next in 2:19:23, with Edion 3rd in 2:19:52.

Sysmex was a solid 4th in 2:19:54 after not making the cut last year, with 2023 Queens Ekiden last-placer Toyota Jidoshokki 5th in 2:20:16. Shimamura was 7th with Yuka Ando running on the Third Stage after transferring from Wacoal. 9th-placer Higo Ginko joined Sysmex in qualifying after missing out last year, while 11th and 14th-place teams Tokyo Metro and Bears both qualified for the first time. In Tokyo Metro's case that was thanks in big part to marathoner Mao Uesugi transferring in from her longtime home at the Starts team. Starts still made it without her, taking 15th just ahead of final qualifier Denso, another team scraping back into the national championship after a few rocky years.

Last year's top non-qualifier Daiso was an unlucky 17th this time around, 36 seconds back from Denso in spite of great runs across the last three stages. Falling out of qualification this year were Universal Entertainment, Senko, Canon and Wacoal, which just couldn't make up for Ando's loss. Making its debut, the Shin Nihon Jusetsu Group team was last in 2:39:09.

All 16 qualifiers join the top 8 placers at last year's Queens Ekiden, Sekisui Kagaku, Japan Post, Panasonic, Shiseido, Daihatsu, Daiichi Seimei, Tenmaya and Iwatani Sangyo, at this year's national championship in Sendai on Nov. 24.

Princess Ekiden

Fukuoka, 20 Oct. 2024
30 teams, 6 stages, 42.195 km
top 16 teams qualify for Queens Ekiden national championship

Top Individual Stage Performances 
First Stage (7.0 km)
1. Nanaka Izawa (Starts) 22:33
2. Shiori Nagumo (Higo Ginko) 22:38
3. Kana Mizumoto (Edion) 22:40
4. Anna Matsuda (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 22:46
5. Asa Kobayashi (North) 22:46
6. Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) 22:48
7. Rio Matsutani (Denso) 22:48
8. Shuri Ogasawara (Tokyo Metro) 22:56
9. Ayu Henmi (Toyota Jidoshokki) 22:59
10. Yuri Tasaki (Sysmex) 23:00
11. Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) 23:05

Second Stage (3.6 km)
1. Yume Goto (Uniqlo) 11:13
2. Kanako Nawa (Edion) 11:27
2. Soyoka Segawa (Sysmex) 11:27
4. Misaki Shitamori (Toyota Jidoshokki) 11:28
5. Momoa Yamada (Shimamura) 11:29
6. Narumi Okumoto (Hitachi) 11:31
7. Momoyo Hirota (Bears) 11:32
8. Sumika Tsutsumi (Higo Ginko) 11:33
9. Chiho Sakamoto (Route Inn Hotels) 11:34
10. Reika Kozono (Kyocera) 11:36

Third Stage (10.7 km)
1. Mikuni Yada (Edion) 34:15
2. Kana Kobayashi (Otsuka Seiyaku) 34:18
3. Yumi Yoshikawa (Uniqlo) 35:00
4. Rio Wakai (Wacoal) 35:04
5. Aiwa Sakaguchi (Bears) 35:05
6. Yuki Toyoda (Higo Ginko) 35:12
7. Kokoro Sakai (Sysmex) 35:13
8. Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro) 35:21
9. Yuka Ando (Shimamura) 35:22
10. Eriko Otsuka (Higo Ginko) 35:23

Fourth Stage (3.8 km)
1. Agnes Mwikali (KEN/Kyocera) 11:19 CR tie
2. Hellen Ekalale (KEN/Toyota Jidoshokki) 11:26
3. Teresiah Muthoni (KEN/Daiso) 11:40
4. Pauline Kamulu (KEN/Route Inn Hotels) 11:48
5. Dolphine Omare (KEN/Uniqlo) 11:52
6. Tabitha Njeri Kamau (KEN/Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 11:55
7. Esther Wangui (KEN/Starts) 12:02
8. Martha Mokaya (KEN/Canon) 12:06
9. Diana Cherotich (KEN/Higo Ginko) 12:07
10. Mirriam Cherop (KEN/Shin Nihon Jusetsu Group) 12:23
11. Kadogo Chebotibin (KEN/SID Group) 12:32
12. Esther Muthoni (KEN/Nitori) 12:35

Fifth Stage (10.4 km)
1. Honoka Tanaike (Otsuka Seiyaku) 35:21
2. Mitsu Ozaki (Sysmex) 35:31
3. Chiharu Suzuki (Hitachi) 35:36
4. Moe Shimizu (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 35:49
5. Miki Hirai (Uniqlo) 35:54
6. Anna Suzuki (Shimamura) 36:06
7. Mizuki Kakiuchi (Daiso) 36:11
8. Saya Nakajima (Edion) 36:14
8. Honoka Sugiura (Nitori) 36:14
10. Ayumi Morita (Tokyo Metro) 36:18

Sixth Stage (6.695 km)
1. Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 21:29
2. Akane Yabushita (Toyota Jidoshokki) 21:33
3. Momoko Hanano (Hitachi) 21:58
4. Hisami Ishii (Sysmex) 22:04
5. Minami Yamanouchi (Shimamura) 22:11
6. Ayaka Kato (Uniqlo) 22:12
7. Miho Hiraoka (Edion) 22:15
8. Kino Sumitani (Nitori) 22:20
9. Kotone Nishina (Route Inn Hotels) 22:22
10. Arisu Fuwa (Senko) 22:27

Team Results
1. Uniqlo - 2:19:16
2. Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo - 2:19:23
3. Edion - 2:19:52
4. Sysmex - 2:19:54
5. Toyota Jidoshokki - 2:20:16
6. Otsuka Seiyaku - 2:20:31
7. Shimamura - 2:20:37
8. Hitachi - 2:20:44
9. Higo Ginko - 2:21:08
10. Kyocera - 2:21:20
11. Tokyo Metro - 2:21:57
12. Nitori - 2:22:00
13. Route Inn Hotels - 2:22:02
14. Bears - 2:22:09
15. Starts - 2:22:17
16. Denso - 2:22:29
-----
17. Daiso - 2:23:05
18. 18 Shinwa Ginko - 2:24:06
19. SID Group - 2:24:18
20. Universal Entertainment - 2:24:36
21. Noritz - 2:24:55
22. Memolead - 2:24:56
23. Senko - 2:24:58
24. Kagoshima Ginko - 2:25:00
25. Ehime Ginko - 2:25:25
26. Canon - 2:26:19
27. Toto - 2:29:19
28. Wacoal - 2:29:44
29. Aichi Denki - 2:31:41
30. Shin Nihon Jusetsu Group - 2:39:09

© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Stefan said…
The Princess Ekiden certainly was an edge of the seat thriller till the very end. Great coverage once again from TBS on their Youtube channels. Just the best. I was cheering for Wakana Kabasawa as she closed the gap in the final leg but I knew she had been suffering from an injury post Olympics so was unable to train as she had hoped. This effort was typical of her and I can see why her teammates were brought to tears. I believe Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance had high hopes for Yoshika (Kazuna) Kanetomo in the 3rd leg to either capture the lead or get very close as she was one of their form athletes. She finished 2nd among the Japanese athletes (5th overall) in the 10,000m All-Japan Corporate Track and Field Championships in September. I saw her get bowled over at the interchange as she was looking at her watch and not looking at the incoming athletes. She seemed okay but perhaps this affected her performance otherwise it was just a very bad day for her. It my opinion it probably was the deciding factor. If she ran to form and won the leg then they win by a minute. Regardless, full credit to Uniqlo who just had a wonderful day and good performances from all their athletes especially Yume Goto. Fantastic to see Chiharu Suzuki from Hitachi perform well and the team qualify given a post I read recently from her regarding the passing of Cynthia in April last year. Below is the link.
https://note.com/chiharu_1993/n/n3e4af1564b73?sub_rt=share_b
And well done to Denso for claiming the final spot. I watched their promo short video on the TBS YouTube channel and it was very amusing with the coach even getting involved.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c2rkWvrd4ts
The Queen's Ekiden might be a bit more open this year. I'm hoping for Daiichi Seimei to get the win but other than their 2 outstanding athletes Yuka Suzuki and Haruka Kokai I'm unsure if they have the depth to beat Sekisui Kagaku. However, I'm anticipating a close affair this year.
October 21, 2024 at 5:56 PM
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