Skip to main content

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, "Noguchi and I have been leading the team together this year, and I think each person has individually really developed their skills. We've turned into a great team."

Head coach Tetsuzo Arikawa thinks Kamimura Gakuen is stronger as a team than its 2023 winning lineup, but he wants it to be competitive without being too focused on trying to dominate. At the team meeting last year when we won the talk was all repeat win, repeat win. But this year we're working without a big star runner, so I've tried not to emphasize the title defense. We haven't given up on the win, though, and will be going for it."

Along with Kamimura Gakuen, Kyushu Region Ekiden 4th-placer Kagoshima H.S. will also be running at Nationals this Sunday. The race starts at 10:00 a.m.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...
1 comment
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview

The Nagoya Women's Marathon , the world's largest women-only marathon and the last race in the selection cycle for September's Tokyo World Championships, happens Sunday. Weather conditions are looking better than what they had in Tokyo and Osaka the last two weekends, 7˚ at the start and rising to 12˚ with sunny skies. The wind looks a bit stronger than ideal, but it could be worse. Fuji TV has the live broadcast starting at 9:00 a.m. Sunday local time, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch the TVer streaming . One option for  a leaderboard is here , and another here . We'll have some coverage on @JRNLive . Just like last time around there are three Ethiopian and Kenyan-born athletes at the top list, this time it being sub-2:20 women Sheila Chepkirui , winner in NYC last year, and Ruti Aga , winner in Xiamen in January, and last year's Nagoya runner-up Eunice Chebichii Chumba . But last year Yuka Ando still pulled off the win, so there's a c...
Post a Comment
Read more

90% of National H.S. Ekiden Runner-Up Omuta H.S. Team to Transfer in Protest Over School's Treatment of Head Coach

A close 2nd at December's National High School Ekiden , 90% of the members of the five-time national champion Omuta H.S. team in Fukuoka will transfer to Tottori Johoku H.S. in Tottori at the start of the new school year next month. The mass transfer comes as a backlash against Omuta's treatment of head coach Ken Akaike , 52, with most team members and parents choosing to continue running under Akaike following his move to Johoku. Akaike had resigned as head coach at Omuta in March, 2023 after it came out that he had used corporal punishment on team members. But many team members at the time and their parents asked him to continue, and he returned to a coaching position at the school after undergoing training. Effectively serving as head coach, he led the team at last December's National High School Ekiden where they finished 2nd in a close-fought battle that went all the way to the end. According to multiple sources, in November the month before the National High School ...
Post a Comment
Read more