Skip to main content

It's Koku Gakuin's Year - National University Ekiden Preview and Streaming


Komazawa University is trying to line up its fifth-straight National University Men's Ekiden win this Sunday, but after a runner-up finish to Koku Gakuin University last month at the Izumo Ekiden it's got a tough road ahead with two extra stages and a longer average stage length to deal with. TV Asahi has the live broadcast starting at 7:45 a.m. local time, with official streaming on TVer and unofficial streaming on mov3.co.




Izumo was an unusually close and exciting race between Komazawa, KGU and Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University that saw the lead change every stage. All three teams were within a few seconds of each other at the start of the anchor stage, where Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi of KGU dropped Hakone First Stage winner Kotaro Shinohara from Komazawa and Third Stage winner Aoi Ota of AGU to take the win.

KGU looks like the favorite here too, its top-8 10000 m average of 28:16.61 the class of the field and giving it a solid advantage over the average stage length of 13.35 km. Izumo 3rd and 4th-placers AGU and Soka University are ranked 2nd and 3rd here, Soka with better 10000 m credentials but AGU with an edge in both 5000 m and half marathon.

Chuo University is ranked 4th on paper, but at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifier half marathon two weeks ago it finished only 6th and was missing some of its top talent including 13:22.01 man Shunsuke Yoshii. The big question is whether it was holding back there to qualify for Hakone with minimum effort and save it for Nationals, or whether it's really that far off its peak condition.




Komazawa is ranked 5th, one better than Izumo where it ultimately ended up 2nd. It will almost definitely beat Chuo, meaning the top four schools are likely to be the same as at Izumo with the only question the final order. Close behind Komazawa on paper are Izumo 10th-placer Daito Bunka University, 11th-placer Toyo University and Yosenkai 8th-placer Tokyo Kokusai University. For Toyo a lot depends on whether top 4th-year Kosuke Ishida, absent at Izumo, runs, and TKU should do better than its ranking if collegiate 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon record holder Richard Etir runs instead of 2nd-year Amos Bett, but all three teams lack Komazawa's momentum and except maybe TKU it's not likely we'll see them in contention for the top group at any point.





The top 8 teams at Nationals auto-qualify for the following year, and on paper there's a drop-off between TKU in 8th and Waseda University in 9th. 6th at Izumo, Waseda should be in the race for a podium spot, but after failing to qualify for Hakone #10-ranked Tokai University needs a turnaround in its luck to do the same. Ranked only 11th, Josai University was 3rd at Hakone but only 7th at Izumo right behind Waseda. Josai is heavily dependent on 3rd-year duo Victor Kimutai and Shoya Saito, and any kind of setback for either will hurt Josai's chances of a podium finish.





#12-ranked Nittai University and #13-ranked Teikyo University don't look to be in range of the podium, but Teikyo is a pure ekiden program that often outperforms itself in the big ekidens. With a pre-race ranking of 11 in Izumo it took the final podium spot in 8th. More teams here means that would be harder to replicate, but Teikyo's strength is skewed toward longer stage lengths and Nationals gives it the chance to do even better than at Izumo. #14 and #15-ranked Rikkyo University, winner at the Yosenkai, and Kanagawa University, 9th at the Yosenkai, aren't likely to break through with a podium placing. Rikkyo could conceivably do it if it hadn't just run a hard half marathon at the Yosenkai two weeks ago.

The National University Select Team is ranked #16, and apart from it the top non-Kanto Region team is Kyoto Sangyo University at 17th. With almost all good high schoolers opting to go to college in the Kanto Region in order to get to run Hakone it's almost impossible for the strongest non-Kanto Region team to take even the weakest one from Kanto, so at best expect to see KSU trying to outrun the Select Team for top non-Kanto honors.

56th National University Men's Ekiden Entry Lists

Nagoya-Mie, 3 Nov. 2024
27 teams, 8 stages, 106.8 km

1. Komazawa University (Kanto Region)
2. Aoyama Gakuin University (Kanto Region)
3. Koku Gakuin University (Kanto Region)
4. Chuo University (Kanto Region)
5. Josai University (Kanto Region)
6. Soka University (Kanto Region)
7. Daito Bunka University (Kanto Region)
8. Tokyo Kokusai University (Kanto Region)
9. Sapporo Gakuin University (Hokkaido Region)
10. Tohoku University (Tohoku Region)
11. Tokai University (Kanto Region)
12. Toyo University (Kanto Region)
13. Waseda University (Kanto Region)
14. Nittai University (Kanto Region)
15. Rikkyo University (Kanto Region)
16. Teikyo University (Kanto Region)
17. Kanagawa University (Kanto Region)
18. Niigata University (Hokushinetsu Region)
19. Kogakkan University (Tokai Region)
20. Kansai University (Kansai Region)
21. Kyoto Sangyo University (Kansai Region)
22. Osaka Keizai University (Kansai Region)
23. Ritsumeikan University (Kansai Region)
24. Okayama University (Chugoku-Shikoku Region)
25. Kagoshima University (Kyushu Region)
26. National University Select Team
27. Tokai Region Select Team

© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
Post a Comment
Read more

2023 Champion Kamimura Gakuen Girls Ready for Sunday's National High School Ekiden

Ahead of the Dec. 22 National High School Ekiden in Kyoto, the 2023 national champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. girls held an open practice session for the media. 2023 was Kamimura Gakuen's only 2nd national title ever. Can it make it two in a row? The Kamimura Gakuen girls won the Nov. 2 Kagoshima Prefecture High School Ekiden, its 9th-straight win and 31st victory overall in the prefectural qualifying race for Nationals. 3rd on her stage at Nationals last year as part of the winning team, Hina Ogura summed up this year's lineup. "There's no really dominant star runner this year, but each person is aware of their position on the team and working together to share in everyone playing leading roles." Sakine Noguchi ran the Second Stage at Nationals last year. "I think we've improved our stamina," she said, "so I hope that we can get the best possible results and all finish with a smile." Handling the First Stage last year, Rin Setoguchi said,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ekiden Great Naoki Okamoto to Retire in January at Age 40

  The Chugoku Denryoku  men's corporate team has announced that team member Naoki Okamoto , 40, will retire in January. Born in May, 1984, Okamoto went to Tohaku J.H.S.  and Yura Ikuei H.S.  before enrolling at Meiji University . His 2nd year at Meiji he helped it make it through the Hakone Ekiden qualifying race for the first time in 14 years and ran Hakone at the end of that season in 2005. He went on to run it his 3rd and 4th years too, placing 6th on the First Stage and 9th on the highly competitive Second Stage. After graduating in 2007 he joined Chugoku Denryoku. He was a regular on its team at the New Year Ekiden, winning the Fifth Stage in 2010. But where he really made his name was the National Men's Ekiden, held every January in Hiroshima where Chugoku Denryoku is based. Running it 19 times, he passed a total of 134 competitors in his career there and came to be recognized as one of the event's icons. He also won its Seventh Stage in 2009. In the marathon, ...
Post a Comment
Read more