Hakone Ekiden Entry Lists

With 3 weeks to go entry lists are out for the 101st Hakone Ekiden on Jan. 2-3, 2025. Things keep going up and up. With 21 teams of 16 entrants and 10 starters each a quick crunch of the numbers gives:

15 teams with a 10-man 5000 m average under 14 minutes
3 teams with a 10-man 5000 m average under 13:45 led by 2024 Hakone winner Aoyama Gakuin University in 13:40.07
10 teams with an individual under 13:30 for 5000 m, AGU, Komazawa University, Chuo University, Tokyo Kokusai University, and Yamanashi Gakuin University with 2 each
2 teams with an individual under 13:15 for 5000 m, TKU's collegiate record holder Richard Etir at 13:00.17 and Komazawa's indoor NR holder Keita Sato at 13:09.45
17 teams with a 10-man 10000 m average under 29 minutes
4 teams with a 10-man 10000 m average under 28:30, led by Chuo's incredible 28:15.62
11 teams with an individual under 28:00 for 10000 m, AGU and Chuo with 3 each, and Komazawa, Josai University, TKU, Waseda University and YGU with 2 each
4 teams with an individual under 27:30 for 10000 m, TKU's Etir again at 27:06.88, Nihon University's Shadrack Kipkemei at 27:20.05, YGU's James Mutuku at 27:23.09, and Komazawa's Sato at 27:28.50
6 teams with a 10-man half marathon average under 1:03:00
3 teams with a 10-man half marathon average under 1:02:30 led by Komazawa in 1:02:01
13 teams with an individual under 1:02:00 for the half marathon, Komazawa with 4, and Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University, AGU and Soka University with 3 each
6 teams with an individual under 1:01:00 for the half marathon
1 team with an individual under 1:00:00 for the half marathon, TKU's Etir yet again with a 59:32

We'll do a more detailed preview closer to the race, but it's no surprise that at the top of the heap are Izumo and Nationals top 3 KGU, AGU and Komazawa. 2nd at Hakone in 2024, Komazawa has the best half marathon average in the field, the most important statistic given Hakone's average stage length of 21.71 km, but with a lot of its people not having run 10000 m its average for that distance is slow and drags it down behind KGU and AGU in the rankings. If #1-ranked KGU wins it'll join both AGU and Komazawa on the very short list of schools to sweep all three university ekidens in one season.

The next tier down includes Izumo and Nationals 4th-placer Soka, ranked 4th here too, 2024 Hakone 3rd-placer Josai, solid programs Daito Bunka University and Toyo University, and, in via October's Yosenkai Half Marathon qualifying race, Chuo and Chuo Gakuin University. DBU, Toyo and Chuo are all missing big guns, DBU lacking its #3 half marathoner Peter Wanjiru, Toyo without 1:00:43 half marathoner Kazuki Matsuyama, and Chuo facing the loss of its #1 and #4 half marathoners Daichi Shibata and Kazusa Takanuma.

The next tier is where things start getting really interesting, with a top-10 placing at Hakone scoring teams places at the next season's Izumo and Hakone, and everyone 11th and lower missing Izumo and running the Yosenkai instead to try to get back to Hakone. You've got a mix of teams like Waseda, Teikyo University and Hosei University that always perform better than they look on paper and usually make the top 10, and teams like TKU, Juntendo University and Nittai University that made it through this season's Yosenkai.

The Kanto Region Student Alliance team, made up of top-placing individuals at the Yosenkai from schools that didn't make the cut as a team, leads the bottom tier, but for whatever reason, maybe a lack of team chemistry, it almost always performs worse than its ranking. Interestingly, the top 3 from the Yosenkai, Rikkyo University, Senshu University and YGU, are all down at this level along with bottom-half Yosenkai qualifiers Nihon and Kanagawa University. Conditions at the Yosenkai were hot, so it's probably best not to read too much into some of the better teams like Chuo and TKU running badly there, but it's likely that it was the peak of the season for Rikkyo, Senshu and YGU, and it'll take proper planning for them to replicate their performances next month.

Check back closer to race date for an in-depth preview and info on how to watch live.

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Weekend Road and Track Roundup

A roundup of the main road and track action on the last weekend of Japan's 2024-25 academic and fiscal year: Doubling off a 2:07:06 PB at the Tokyo Marathon 4 weeks ago, Tatsuya Maruyama took bronze at the Asian Marathon Championships in Jiaxing, China in 2:11:56. Gold went to North Korea's Il Ryong Han in a breakaway 2:11:18, with silver medalist Tianyu Chen of China just ahead of Maruyama in 2:11:50. Japan's Shungo Yokota was a distant 4th in 2:14:00, with Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir 6th in 2:15:14. Japanese women Kaede Kawamura and Natsumi Matsushita were 5th and 6th in 2:31:26 and 2:34:40, with medals going to China's Bing Wu , gold in 2:26:01, North Korea's Kwang-Ok Ri , silver right behind her in 2:26:07, and defending gold medalist Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh landing in bronze this time in 2:28:56, her third sub-2:29 performance so far in 2025. Back home, four men broke 2:20 at the Fukui Sakura Marathon . Ko Kobayashi from the Shi...

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