Skip to main content

Saitama Wins Final East Japan Women's Ekiden With Dramatic Anchor Stage Turnaround by Yamanouchi


The final edition of the East Japan Women's Ekiden was held Nov. 10 in Fukushima, with teams of 9 athletes ranging from junior high school students to corporate leaguers representing the 18 prefectures in eastern and northern Japan competing over 42.195 km. For the first time in 18 years Saitama took the win, running 2:19:07 to score its fourth title in the event's 39-year history despite not taking a single individual stage title. Gunma was 2nd, with Tokyo placing 3rd.

Saitama's lead runner Wakana Fukuyama, a 2nd-year at Saitama Sakae H.S., started them off in 8th after the 6.0 km 1st leg. Over the next three legs Saitama moved up as high as 3rd, fluctuating a few spots over the stages of that but advancing to 2nd thanks to a great run from Tamai J.H.S. 3rd- year Momoka Ono on the second-to-last stage. That put Saitama's anchor Minami Yamanouchi from the Shimamura corporate team 30 seconds back from the leader, and with 10.0 km to work with and a strong run she was able to close it down and take the win.

39th East Japan Women's Ekiden

Fukushima, 10 Nov. 2024
18 teams, 9 stages, 42.195 km

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (6.0 km) - Ayami Yoshida (Hokkaido) - 19:01
Second Stage (4.0 km) - Nami Kawakami (Nagano) - 12:52
Third Stage (3.0 km) - Yui Onotora (Miyagi) - 9:49
Fourth Stage (3.0 km) - Koko Fujisawa (Gunma) - 9:26
Fifth Stage (5.0875 km) - Aoi Hosokawa (Miyagi) - 16:33
Sixth Stage (4.1075 km) - Rena Imai (Nagano) - 12:51
Seventh Stage (4.0 km) - Koto Watanabe (Miyagi) - 13:09
Eighth Stage (3.0 km ) - Yuna Baba (Shizuoka) - 9:34
Ninth Stage (10.0 km ) - Kana Kobayashi (Gunma) - 31:55

Team Results
1. Saitama - 2:19:07
2. Gunma - 2:19:35
3. Tokyo - 2:19:52
4. Nagano - 2:19:58
5. Shizuoka - 2:20:11
6. Miyagi - 2:20:25
7. Fukushima - 2:20:37
8. Hokkaido - 2:22:03
9. Niigata - 2:22:12
10. Chiba - 2:22:38
11. Yamanashi - 2:22:46
12. Iwate - 2:23:18
13. Tochigi - 2:23:30
14. Ibaraki - 2:23:48
15. Kanagawa - 2:24:44
16. Akita - 2:25:51
17. Yamagata - 2:26:31
18. Aomori - 2:28:00


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