Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21.

Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S., 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda. Nagano Higashi won in 1:07:27, 1 second faster than Kamimura Gakuen H.S. did in winning the 2023 title, with Sendai Ikuei 2nd in 1:07:45 and Kunei Joshi Gakuin 3rd in 1:08:05.

A major rule change this year barred non-Japanese athletes from running anything except one of the two 3.0 km legs, which meant the CR on the longer stages were all out of reach. The Third Stage saw a new CR of 9:14 by Lucy Nduta of 9th-place Aomori Yamada H.S. as a result, with 2nd and 3rd placers Rose Wangui (Sera H.S.) and Margaret Muthoni (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.) also under the old CR of 9:21. Despite Muthoni's efforts, last year's national champ Kamimura Gakuen was only 5th in 1:08:41. 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) came up short of the fastest time ever by a Japanese-born runner on the 4.0975 km Second Stage but still managing to take the stage win in 12:47. Higashi Osaka Keiai was 6th in 1:08:42.

36th National High School Girls Ekiden

Kyoto, 22 Dec. 2024

58 teams, 5 legs, 21.0975 km

complete results

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (6.0 km) - Airi Mashiba (Nagano Higashi H.S.) - 19:30

Second Stage (4.0975 km) - Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 12:47

Third Stage (3.0 km) - Lucy Nduta (Aoyama Yamada H.S.) - 9:14 - CR

Fourth Stage (3.0 km) - Tsubomi Tezuka (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 9:10

Fifth Stage (5.0 km) - Momoka Onishi (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 15:46

Top Team Results

1. Nagano Higashi H.S. - 1:07:27

2. Sendai Ikuei H.S. - 1:07:45

3. Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. - 1:08:05

4. Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. - 1:08:32

5. Kamimura Gakuen H.S. - 1:08:41

6. Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. - 1:08:42

7. Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S. - 1:08:45

8. Gingawa Gakuin H.S. - 1:09:19

9. Aoyama Yamada H.S. - 1:09:36

10. Saitama Sakae H.S. - 1:10:03

On the Loss of the ARRS Database

At some point in the last few months I discovered that both versions of the ARRS database, the static one and the searchable version , are gone. Last week David Monti posted a link to the ARRS history of an event he covered in Race Results Weekly, I guess copying and pasting a link from last year without looking at it, and that reminded me to write something about the loss of the database. The Association of Road Racing Statisticians was basically a one-man show operated from the remote Northern California shores by Ken Young . When the site existed its intro read: The Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyses and publishes results and statistics regarding elite distance running at distances 3000m and longer...The data of ARRS is stored in the ARRS database, which has more than 1.3 million performances from more than 240,000 races by more than 95,000 elite and sub-elite distance runners worldwide...This website ...

Multiple National Records This Weekend

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...

Japan's Team Lineup in Copenhagen

Re-upping an earlier post on Japan's team lineup for this weekend's Copenhagen World Road Running Championships . The JAAF chose not to name any women to the team in the mile. Women 5 km Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:06.98 Rina Kusu (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:10.91 Half Marathon Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon) - 1:09:14 Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:20 Rina Shimizu (Noritz) - 1:09:22 Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) - 1:09:23 Men Mile Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.) - 3:37.53 (1500 m) Tomoki Nakano (Toenec) - 3:37.92 (1500 m) 5 km Yota Mashiko (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.35 Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.64 Half Marathon Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:00:22 Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:26 Neo Namiki (Subaru) - 1:00:29 Daisuke Sato (Chuo Univ.) - 1:00:40 © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

japan running news

Search This Blog