Skip to main content

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

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

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
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...
1 comment
Read more

Morinomiyako Ekiden Preview

The university men's ekiden circuit is 100% dominated by schools from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, but for women it's more geographically diverse, the last two big dynasty schools being the Tokai Region's Meijo University and the Kansai Region's Ritsumeikan University with Kanto's Daito Bunka University a perpetual close 2nd at both of the main races, Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden and December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden . Last year Kanto's Josai University scored upset wins at both Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji , to make it a rare Kanto sweep. At Morinomiyako DBU was 2nd yet again with Meijo 3rd and Tohoku region local Tohoku Fukushi University a surprise 4th to hold 2024 winner and top Kansai team Ritsumeikan back to 5th. At Mt. Fuji Tohoku Fukushi almost pulled off a shock win on the anchor stage before Josai came back on the final climb, bumping DBU down to 3rd and Meijo to 4th, with Ritsumeikan 5th there too. Fresh names at the top of the list a...
1 comment
Read more