Skip to main content

New Year Ekiden Field is Set


We're deep into championship ekiden season. Over the last two weekends the six regions making up the corporate leagues held their qualifying races for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships. The New Year Ekiden is one of the only national-level championship ekidens that doesn't give its podium finishers auto-qualifying spots for the next year, meaning every team has to run the regional races every November. It's not hard to see how that eats into the fall marathon season and how doing it the same way they do for all the other big ekidens, including the corporate women's national championships later this month, and having the top teams auto-qualify, would open up the fall schedule and improve Japan's performances in men's marathoning. But it is what it is right now.

In place of an auto-qualifying spot for podium finishers, the national corporate federation redistributes the wealth of qualifying slots available in each region based on how the teams in that region did at the New Year Ekiden the year before. The East Japan Region where Tokyo is located was a bloodbath this year in regional race on Nov. 3, with only 10 slots available to at least 17 teams with a realistic chance of qualifying. GMO led start to finish off a 32:42 CR on the 11.6 km 1st leg by Yuya Yoshida and fastest times on 4 of the 7 legs overall. Sunbelx was a surprise at 3rd, its best-ever result, Fujitsu landing 4th despite a 29:38 CR on the 10.6 km 6th leg by Yuhei Urano. SID Group took 10th, edging out Konica Minolta by 1:19 for the last qualifying spot. Other non-qualifiers included Press Kogyo, Comodi Iida, ND Software, Fujisan no Meisui, Komori Corporation and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.


9 slots were open in the Kyushu Region the same day, and with only 8 strong teams all any of them had to do to qualify was basically show up and finish. The first 5 of the race's 7 legs were exciting and full of turnover, with 3 different teams taking turns leading and 5 occupying a place in the top 3 at some point. Ryo Saito of Asahi Kasei ran down Kurosaki Harima's Daisuke Doi on the 5th leg to put Asahi Kasei 1 second ahead, and the last two stages couldn't have been more dramatic. Asahi Kasei and Kurosaki Harima's 6th runners Kenta Murayama and Tomonobu Tamura both ran identical times, handing off to anchors Akira Aizawa and Sota Fukutani with the same 1-second margin. Aizawa brought AK home for the win with exactly the same margin, 1 second. Behind AK's B-team and two select teams, Togami Denki picked up the 9th qualifying spot almost 4 minutes behind 8th qualifier Nishitetsu.


A week later the other four regions did their thing on Nov. 10. In the combined Chubu and Hokuriku Region race, Toyota Boshoku ran a course record 3:51:03 for 80.5 km, the fastest average pace of any team across the 6 qualifying races, to beat 2024 New Year Ekiden champion Toyota by over a minute. That said, Toyota's strength was split with a B-team whose lead runner Tatsuya Maruyama outran the A-team's Yusaku Nomura by 2 seconds. Perpetual Hokuriku winner YKK did it again, but this time with an almost 5-minute CR for the Hokuriku division that put it 3rd overall against the most much stronger Chubu Region teams.

Not much drama came in the Chugoku Region race, which had 5 qualifying slots this year for its 4 traditionally strong teams. Chudenko was 1st as usual in 4:00:18, over two minutes up on 2nd-placer Chugoku Denryoku. The much weaker Takeda Yakuhin team lucked out with the extra spot available this time, taking an easy 5th almost 13 minutes behind 4th-placer JFE Steel and over 13 minutes up on 6th-place Hoshizaki.


Apart from East Japan, the Kansai Region was the only one where any legit team really had a chance of not qualifying, with 4 slots available to 6 teams good enough to make it. SG Holdings led wire to wire to win by 2 1/2 minutes, but 2nd through 4th-placers Otsuka Seiyaku, Osaka Gas and Sumitomo Denko all finished close together to pick up the other qualifying spots. NTT Nishi Nihon was the surprise non-qualifier, anchor Hazuma Hattori run down by Sumitomo Denko's Kazuki Tamura after NTT had spent the 2nd through 6th legs inside the top 4 and as high as 2nd. The Osaka Police Department team also failed to qualify at 6th.

69th New Year Ekiden Entry List

Corporate Men's National Championship
Maebashi, Gunma, 1 Jan. 2025
times listed are average pace in regional qualifying race

Toyota Boshoku (Chubu) - 2:52.2 / km
Toyota (Chubu) - 2:53.1 / km
GMO (East Japan) - 2:54.3 / km
YKK (Hokuriku) - 2:54.9 / km
Asahi Kasei (Kyushu) - 2:55.5 / km
Toenec (Chubu) - 2:55.5 / km
Kurosaki Harima (Kyushu) - 2:55.6 / km
Yakult (East Japan) - 2:55.8 / km
Sunbelx (East Japan) - 2:56.1 / km
Aichi Seiko (Chubu) - 2:56.2 / km
Fujitsu (East Japan) - 2:56.4 / km
NTN (Chubu) - 2:56.4 / km
SG Holdings (Kansai) - 2:56.5 / km
Subaru (East Japan) - 2:56.6 / km
Logisteed (East Japan) - 2:56.8 / km
Aisan Kogyo (Chubu) - 2:57.1 / km
Chuo Hatsujo (Chubu) - 2:57.3 / km
Honda (East Japan) - 2:57.4 / km
Kao (East Japan) - 2:57.4 / km
JR Higashi Nihon (East Japan) - 2:57.5 / km
Yasukawa Denki (Kyushu) - 2:57.7 / km
Kyudenko (Kyushu) - 2:58.3 / km
Otsuka Seiyaku (Kansai) - 2:58.4 / km
Chudenko (Chugoku) - 2:58.4 / km
SID Group (East Japan) - 2:58.4 / km
Hiramatsu Byoin (Kyushu) - 2:58.7 / km
Sekino Kosan (Hokuriku) - 2:58.7 / km
Osaka Gas (Kansai) - 2:59.0 / km
Mitsubishi Juko (Kyushu) - 2:59.1 / km
Sumitomo Denko (Kansai) - 2:59.3 / km
Toyota Kyushu (Kyushu) - 2:59.7 / km
Chugoku Denryoku (Chugoku) - 3:00.0 / km
Nishitetsu (Kyushu) - 3:00.0 / km
Mazda (Chugoku) - 3:00.7 / km
JFE Steel (Chugoku) - 3:01.2 / km
Togami Denki (Kyushu) - 3:02.6 / km
Takeda Yakuhin (Chugoku) - 3:10.5 / km

© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nagoya Asian Games Test Event Canceled After Insulation Falls From Venue Ceiling

A section of insulation material fell from the ceiling of Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena, the official venue for squash competition at September's Nagoya Asian Games. There were no injuries, but the city suspended use of the arena until its safety could be guaranteed, resulting in the cancelation of the Asian Games squash test event which was scheduled to have begun on May 14. It is not yet clear whether the arena will be usable for the Asian Games as planned. According to city officials, arena staff found that the insulation material had fallen onto a work walkway 13 m above the ground on the night of May 11. The fallen material was 3.6 m long, 50 cm wide and 2.5 km thick, and was found to be waterlogged. The cause of the accident is unknown, but it is possible that it was caused by rainwater leaking in from the roof. The same insulation material is installed across the entire ceiling, and the city plans to check for the extent of the possible flooding. Asked whether the arena will be re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more