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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.


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