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Koku Gakuin Wins National University Ekiden for First Time in Anchor Stage Turnaround


Last month's Izumo Ekiden season opener was unusually action-packed with turnovers in the lead on every stage and a dramatic showdown between anchors Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ,), Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.). All three schools were expected to be up front again at today's National University Men's Ekiden, and race-morning lineup changes unexpectedly put Shinohara, Ota and Hirabayashi against each other again on the 2nd-to-last stage of the day.

Komazawa was immediately in trouble when its first two runners Kosuke Shimako and Shunsuke Kuwata tanked, falling to 16th. AGU was out front after two of the eight legs, with Hibiki Yoshida from Izumo 4th-placer Soka University giving him a run for it and both just missing the 2nd leg CR. AGU led the rest of the way, with a 33:03 CR for the 11.8 km 4th leg by Asahi Kuroda giving it a lead of almost 1:30 that it took another CR from KGU's Ayumu Yamamoto to cut back down to just 4 seconds.

That meant AGU's Ota had only a 4-second lead over KGU's Hirabayashi with 17.6 km to go to the final exchange. Shinohara, on the other hand, was almost 3 minutes behind in 5th. Both Ota and Hirabayashi clocked 50:07, meaning it would be up to anchors Shota Shiode and Ryuto Uehara to decide the win. Shinohara outran both by 10 seconds, his 49:57 making him only the third man to break 50 minutes on the 7th leg, but with a 2:37 deficit for Komazawa anchor Takuma Yamakawa Komazawa's chances of a 5th-straight win were gone. Or so it seemed.

One of the things about the ekiden is that it's hard to put together a team that's 100% strong and ready, and the weak links can be anywhere. For Komazawa that was early on, but for AGU and KGU it came at the very end. Shiode blew up hard, running only the 15th-fastest time on the stage and watching helplessly as KGU's Uehara disappeared ahead of him. But Uehara had problems of his own, only 9th-fastest on the stage despite taking the lead. Meanwhile Komazawa's Yamakawa was in the middle of dropping the 2nd-fastest time ever by a Japanese man on the anchor stage, blowing by Shiode and closing over two minutes on Uehara, who started looking back in a panic when he realized what was happening.

In the end Uehara held on to bring KGU home to its first-ever national title, covering the 106.8 km course in 5:09:56. Komazawa was next in 5:10:24, a solid run given its first two stages. AGU was 3rd in 5:10:41, with Soka 4th in 5:13:17 to duplicate the top 4 from Izumo. Minus Izumo's Ivy League team, the next two teams Waseda University and Josai University also duplicated their Izumo placings, with Rikkyo University running strong over the 2nd half of the race to take 7th in its Nationals debut and hold Izumo 8th-placer Teikyo University back to the last place on the 8-deep podium here too.

Doubling from the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifier half marathon two weeks ago, Tokyo Kokusai University was the first team off the podium at 9th. Strong on paper, Chuo University and Tokai University showed the same problems they had at the Yosenkai, Chuo only 12th and Tokai last among the Kanto Region teams in the race at 15th.

Next up on the calendar of important races on the collegiate men's calendar is the Ageo City Half Marathon in two weeks, where most Hakone-bound teams will run their complete rosters to help coaches thin down the short list for their Hakone lineup. A week after that is the Hachioji Long Distance meet, where the very top including Komazawa's Shinohara will be shooting for national records over 5000 m and 10000 m.

56th National University Men's Ekiden

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

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (9.5 km)
1. Ryuto Hirashima (Nittai Univ.) - 28:18
2. Junpei Kakazu (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 28:20
3. Eiki Kogure (Soka Univ.) - 28:20

Second Stage (11.1 km)
1. Masaya Tsurukawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 31:04
2. Hibiki Yoshida (Soka Univ.) - 31:05
3. Amos Kibet (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 31:37

Third Stage (11.9 km)
1. Victor Kimutai (Josai Univ.) - 33:22
2. Aoi Ito (Komazawa Univ.) - 33:39
3. Hikari Tsujihara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 33:59

Fourth Stage (11.8 km)
1. Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 33:03 - CR
2. Shoya Saito (Josai Univ.) - 33:41
3. Haru Taninaka (Komazawa Univ.) - 33:44

Fifth Stage (12.4 km)
1. Hiromichi Nonaka (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 35:35
2. Stephen Muthini (Soka Univ.) - 35:41
3. Shunpei Yamaguchi (Waseda Univ.) - 36:08

Sixth Stage (12.8 km)
1. Ayumu Yamamoto (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 36:47 - CR
2. Kosei Shiraishi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 37:24
3. Kaisei Yasuhara (Komazawa Univ.) - 37:39

Seventh Stage (17.6 km)
1. Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ.) - 49:57
2. Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 50:07
2. Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 50:07

Eighth Stage (19.7 km)
1. Takuma Yamakawa (Komazawa Univ.) - 57:09
2. Yuma Nozawa (Soka Univ.) - 57:48
3. Shinsaku Kudo (Waseda Univ.) - 58:12

Team Results
1. Koku Gakuin University - 5:09:56
2. Komazawa University - 5:10:24
3. Aoyama Gakuin University - 5:10:41
4. Soka University - 5:13:17
5. Waseda University - 5:14:24
6. Josai University - 5:14:57
7. Rikkyo University - 5:16:21
8. Teikyo University - 5:16:24
-----
9. Tokyo Kokusai University - 5:17:46
10. Nittai University - 5:17:52
11. Daito Bunka University - 5:18:08
12. Chuo University - 5:19:49
13. Toyo University - 5:20:08
OP - National University Select Team - 5:21:31
14. Kanagawa University - 5:22:42
15. Tokai University - 5:23:43
16. Kyoto Sangyo University - 5:28:58
17. Kogakkan University - 5:31:36
OP - Tokai Region University Select Team - 5:32:20
18. Osaka Keizai University - 5:32:53
19. Kansai University - 5:33:52
20. Sapporo Gakuin University - 5:35:50
21. Kagoshima University - 5:37:24
22. Ritsumeikan University - 5:38:18
23. Okayama University - 5:40:11
24. Niigata University - 5:40:28
25. Tohoku University - 5:57:12

© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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