While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S., the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading.
2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage.
Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 km Fifth Stage, and teammate Shu Morimoto held that lead on the 5.0 km Sixth Stage. It came down to an anchor stage duel between Saku Chosei's Koki Ishikawa, 13:59 for 5000 m, and Omuta's Junsei Murakami, 14:11 on the track. To his credit Murakami held on well and even threw in a few surges, but on the uphill half of an underpass with 1.5 km to go Ishikawa pulled away.
Unchallenged from there, he brought Saku Chosei to a 2nd-straight national title in 2:01:33, only 33 seconds off its CR from last year. Along with the Nagano Higashi girls' victory, it made it a double win for teams from Nagano. Omuta was 2nd in 2:01:57, anything under 2:02 being a stellar time at this race, especially for all-Japanese teams like Saku Chosei and Omuta. Sendai Ikuei was 3rd in 2:02:39, with early leader Yachiyo Shoin slipping over a minute behind but hanging on to 4th in 2:03:49.
Like in the girls' race, non-Japanese athletes were restricted to one of the two 3.0 km stages, greatly reducing the advantage of teams that have Kenyan runners. Up to last year they could run one of the two 8 km stages, but although Felix Muthiani of Yamanashi Gakuin H.S. turned in the only individual new stage CR this year, 7:46 for the 3.0 km Second Stage, with the massive limitation on their use this time only two teams in the top 10, 3rd placer Sendai Ikuei and 10th-place Kurashiki H.S., had non-Japanese athletes. In Kurashiki's case it meant the end of a decade-long streak of top-8 finishes. Saku Chosei head coach Masaru Takamizawa published a thoughtful look at the implications, good and bad, of the decision to eliminate almost any advantage to having non-Japanese athletes earlier this year, and how that decision plays out remains to be seen.
75th National High School Boys Ekiden
Kyoto, 22 Dec. 2024
58 teams, 7 legs, 42.195 km
Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (10.0 km) - Rui Suzuki (Yachiyo Shoin) - 28:43
Second Stage (3.0 km) - Felix Muthiani (Yamanashi Gakuin) - 7:46 - CR
Third Stage (8.1075 km) - Tetsu Sasaki (Saku Chosei) - 23:38
Fourth Stage (8.0875 km) - Kenshin Noda (Omuta) - 22:57
Fifth Stage (3.0 km) - Taketo Tsukada (Omuta) - 8:28
Sixth Stage (5.0 km) - Yuto Kishibata (Saku Chosei) / Shu Morimoto (Omuta) - 14:20
Seventh Stage (5.0 km) - Koki Ishikawa (Saku Chosei) - 14:05
Top Team Results
1. Saku Chosei H.S. - 2:01:33
2. Omuta H.S. - 2:01:57
3. Sendai Ikuei H.S. - 2:02:39
4. Yachiyo Shoin H.S. - 2:03:49
5. Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. - 2:04:28
6. Kyushu Gakuin H.S. - 2:04:47
7. Tosu Kogyo H.S. - 2:04:55
8. Kobayashi H.S. - 2:04:58
9. Rakunan H.S. - 2:04:59
10. Kurashiki H.S. - 2:05:26
© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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