Queens Ekiden Streaming and Preview

Sunday is the first big race of championship ekiden season, the Queens Ekiden in Sendai, the season-ending national championship for corporate women. 24 teams race 42.195 km in 6 legs, with the top 8 scoring places for 2025. TBS' live nationwide broadcast starts at 11:50, with multi-camera streaming on Youtube above.

Last year Sekisui Kagaku won by almost a minute and a half, and with Paris Olympian Yuma Yamamoto, 2023 World Championships marathoner Sayaka Sato on its entry list and collegiate 1500 m record holder Mizuki Michishita having come on board this season it looks like a contender for another win. But last year's runner-up Japan Post got a big boost this season with the addition of its first non-Japanese member, two-time double 1500 m and 3000 m high school champion Caroline Kariba. The Queens Ekiden limits non-Japanese athletes to a 3.8 km leg, so it'd be tough for Kariba to bridge a 1:25 gap by herself with that little ground to work with. But what she can do is get Japan Post's last two runners into closer range of Sekisui Kagaku or whoever else is leading and give them the momentum to have a better chance of catching them.

2023 4th-placer Shiseido has three Paris Olympians, Mao Ichiyama, Rino Goshima and Yuka Takashima, in its lineup, but in recent racing a lot of its people haven't been in peak form, making it look shakier than last year. 6th last year, Daiichi Seimei seems to be on an upward trajectory with a great run in the marathon in Paris from Yuka Suzuki and Haruka Kokai having been pretty consistent all year. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Daiichi Seimei ahead of Shiseido and in contention for top 3.

Panasonic, Daihatsu, Tenmaya and Iwatani Sangyo round out last year's podium finishers. 11th last year, Uniqlo won October's Princess Ekiden qualifying race thanks in large part to the addition of corporate half marathon champ Dolphine Omare, like Japan Posts's Kariba the first non-Japanese athlete to run for her team. Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo was only 7 seconds behind Uniqlo at the Princess Ekiden, and both teams have a good chance of breaking through onto the national podium this time.

Two teams will be making their Queens Ekiden debuts. Tokyo Metro scored big when it recruited 2:22:29 marathoner Mao Uesugi away from her longtime home at Starts, with Bears putting in an even team effort at the Princess Ekiden to make the cut.

The complete field with bib numbers:

1. Sekisui Kagaku

2. Japan Post

3. Panasonic

4. Shiseido

5. Daihatsu

6. Daiichi Seimei

7. Tenmaya

8. Iwatani Sangyo

9. Uniqlo

10. Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo

11. Edion

12. Sysmex

13. Toyota Jidoshokki

14. Otsuka Seiyaku

15. Shimamura

16. Hitachi

17. Higo Gingo

18. Kyocera

19. Tokyo Metro

20. Nitori

21. Route Inn Hotels

22. Bears

23. Starts

24. Denso

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

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