Skip to main content

Aoyama Gakuin Breaks Hakone Ekiden CR for Second Year in a Row



2024 Hakone Ekiden course record breaker Aoyama Gakuin University was 3:16 up on 2023 winner Komazawa University at the end of Day One of the Hakone 2025, an even bigger margin than last year when it was 2:38 ahead of Komazawa and went on to win the 217.1 km overall race in a course record 10:41:25, beating Komazawa by almost 7 minutes. There was almost no chance Komazawa could close the gap today on the return trip of Hakone Day Two. But that doesn't mean they didn't try.

Komazawa 3rd year Aoi Ito was just off the CR on the ~800 m downhill 6th leg in 57:38, but even with a run that good he lost ground when AGU's Akimu Nomura proved a hypothetical, breaking the 57-minute barrier for the 20.8 km leg with a 30-second CR of 56:47. Post-race Nomura said that he had spent the whole year training to run 56, and he executed perfectly. And put AGU 4:07 ahead, hopeless, except for a ray of hope.

Injured for most of 2024 and running his first race since March on only 6 weeks of training, Komazawa's Keita Sato blasted a 1:00:43 on the 21.3 km Seventh Stage, 57 seconds under the old CR and mercilessly chopping AGU's lead down to 1:40. Pre-race Komazawa coach Hiroaki Oyagi told JRN that Sato was only at 70%, and that he expected him to take 30-60 seconds of AGU's lead. Safe to say 2:27 exceeded expectations.

That kind of change in fortune put a come-from behind Komazawa win that had seemed out of reach on the horizon and gave Komazawa's last 3 runners the forward momentum that came make a late turnaround possible. Each of them initially gained on their AGU counterpart, but in each case AGU came through. 8th man Shota Shiode won his stage and extended the lead to 1:57. 9th runner Yuto Tanaka was 2nd on his leg and turned the lead up to 2:21. 1st-year anchor Hikaru Ogawara frontran a stage win, 27 seconds faster than Komazawa anchor Shoya Koyama by 27 seconds.

Ogawara's stage-winning run brought AGU home to its 2nd-straight Hakone title in 10:41:19, beating last year's CR by 6 seconds. Its Day Two time of 5:21:18 was also a new CR, meaning that AGU simultaneously held the CR for Day One, Day Two, and the overall course. For exactly 2 minutes and 48 seconds. Largely on the strength of Sato's stellar Seventh Stage CR, Komazawa covered Day Two in 5:20:50 to break AGU's new record and stop them from ending the day with complete domination of the event.

Izumo and National University Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University couldn't translate those success into the biggest win on the circuit, 3rd overall in 10:50:47. Waseda University and Chuo University both outran their rankings, Waseda giving Koku Gakuin a race of it at 4th in 10:50:57 and Chuo shaking off last year's 3rd-placer Josai University for 5th in 10:52:49 to Josai's 10:53:09 for 6th. Ranked #4 and working its way up to that position by the Eighth Stage, Soka University faded to 8th in 10:53:35.

And behind them, chaos. A top 10 finish at Hakone earns a team an invitation to October's Izumo Ekiden and to the following year's Hakone. 11th or higher and you are sent to the Yosenkai qualifying race instead of Izumo. All throughout Day Two Tokyo Kokusai University, Toyo University, Teikyo University, Juntendo University, Nittai University and Rikkyo University battled for the last 3 places in the top 10, and for most of the anchor stage it was TKU, Toyo, Teikyo and Juntendo right together, all knowing that one of them would go down.

TKU's Yoshiki Omura threw down first with a long surge from over a kilometer out and riding the momentum in for 8th. Toyo's Taiga Usune and Teikyo's Sho Kobayashi took a minute to respond, but both pulled away from Juntendo's Tatsuya Furukawa and almost caught Omura, Usune 1 second back in 9th and Kobayashi another 2 seconds behind to keep Teikyo streak of perpetual top 10 finishes alive.

Furukawa was 7 seconds behind in 11th, a big step up from its 17th-place finish last year but still crushing. TKU and Chuo breaking into the top 10 knocked out last year's 6th-placer Hosei University, over 8 minutes off the podium this time in 15th, and last year's 10-placer Daito Bunka University, 19th and over 15 minutes out of 10th.

Performances at Hakone just keep going up and up. There has to be a ceiling somewhere, but with new CR on 4 out of 10 legs, one with 3 people breaking it, 2 teams breaking the Day Two CR, and a new overall CR, it's not in sight yet. Tomorrow we'll do a follow-up on the numbers and what they mean for the future, but for now what you can say for sure is that in the first race of its second century, the 2025 Hakone Ekiden was just about everything you could have hoped for.



101st Hakone Ekiden Day Two

Hakone-Tokyo, 3 January 2025
21 teams, 5 stages, 109.6 km

Top Individual Stage Results
Sixth Stage (20.8 km, ~800 m descent) 
1. Akimu Nomura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 56:47 - CR
2. Aoi Ito (Komazawa Univ.) - 57:38 - all-time #5
3. Ryuki Kobayashi (Josai Univ.) - 58:06 - all-time #9
4. Riku Hirota (Teikyo Univ.) - 58:13
5. Ibuki Yamazaki (Waseda Univ.) - 58:45
6. Yuto Urata (Chuo Univ.) - 58:49
6. Kazuhiro Ueda (Kanagawa Univ.) - 58:49
8. Ryusei Hayashi (Juntendo Univ.) - 58:55
9. Mashu Nishimura (Toyo Univ. - 58:56
10. Takuma Nakayama (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 59:00

Seventh Stage (21.3 km) 
1. Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:00:43 - CR
2. Hikaru Tsujihara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:21 - all-time #4
2. Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:02:21 - all-time #4
4. Masaki Tominaga (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:02:30 - all-time #7
5. Sota Sumihara (Nittai Univ.) - 1:02:56
6. Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) - 1:03:00
7. Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) - 1:03:07
8. Takumi Orihashi (Soka Univ.) - 1:03:09
9. Kosei Shiraishi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:10
10. Sho Fukuda (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:03:19

Eighth Stage (21.4 km) 
1. Shota Shiode (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:14 - all-time #6
2. Keigo Amimoto (Toyo Univ.) - 1:04:18 - all-time #9
3. Hiroya Abe (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:25 - all-time #10
4. Kaisei Yasuhara (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:31
5. Takanori Wakesu (Nittai Univ.) - 1:04:32 
6. Shiro Yamaguchi (Rikkyo Univ.) - 1:04:41
7. Kaisei Sato (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:46
8. Kanata Takashima (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:04:47
9. Takuto Aramaki (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:05:14
10. Yu Kurotani (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:48

Ninth Stage (23.1 km) 
1. Yuga Sakurai (Josai Univ.) - 1:08:27 - all-time #6
2. Yuto Tanaka (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:08:40 - all-time #10
3. Yushiro Kanno (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:09:01 
4. Taisei Kobayashi (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:09:03
5. Hibiki Murakami (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:09:04
6. Ryuto Uehara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:09:09
7. Shu Yoshida (Toyo Univ.) - 1:09:22
8. Yuta Yoshinaka (Chuo Univ.) - 1:09:46
8. Hiroyuki Ishioka (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:09:46
10. Ren Yamaguchi (Nittai Univ.) - 1:09:59

Tenth Stage (23.0 km) 
1. Hikaru Ogawara (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:08:27 - all-time #2
2. Shoya Koyama (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:08:54 - all-time #7
3. Kuranosuke Yoshida (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:09:25
4. Daichi Fujita (Chuo Univ.) - 1:09:28
5. Yuta Kanno (Waseda Univ.) - 1:09:36
6. Yoshiki Omura (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:09:38
7. Masato Nakashima (Josai Univ.) - 1:09:48
8. Shogo Kobayashi (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:10:08
9. Tatsuya Furukawa (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:10:09
10. Taiga Usune (Toyo Univ.) - 1:10:11

Overall Team Results
top 10 teams qualify for 2026 Hakone Ekiden
1. Aoyama Gakuin University - 10:41:19 - CR
2. Komazawa University - 10:44:07 - all-time #3
3. Koku Gakuin University - 10:50:47 - all-time #7
4. Waseda University - 10:50:57 - all-time #8
5. Chuo University - 10:52:49
6. Josai University - 10:53:09
7. Soka University - 10:53:35
8. Tokyo Kokusai University - 10:54:55
9. Toyo University - 10:54:56
10. Teikyo University - 10:54:58
-----
11. Juntendo University - 10:55:05
12. Nittai University - 10:56:22
13. Rikkyo University - 10:58:21
14. Chuo Gakuin University - 11:00:13
15. Hosei University - 11:03:16
OP - Kanto Region Student Alliance - 11:06:53
16. Kanagawa University - 11:07:28
17. Senshu University - 11:08:53
18. Yamanashi Gakuin University - 11:09:40
19. Daito Bunka University - 11:10:38
20. Nihon University - 11:11:50

Day Two Team Results - 109.6 km
1. Komazawa University - 5:20:50 - CR
2. Aoyama Gakuin University - 5:21:18 (CR) - all-time #2
3. Koku Gakuin University - 5:25:21 - all-time #7
4. Teikyo University - 5:25:30 - all-time #8
5. Tokyo Kokusai University - 5:26:21 - all-time #9
6. Juntendo University - 5:26:25 - all-time #10
7. Toyo University - 5:27:03
8. Josai University - 5:27:11
9. Nittai University - 5:28:19
10. Waseda University - 5:28:27
11. Soka University - 5:29:57
12. Rikkyo University - 5:30:54
13. Chuo University - 5:31:01
14. Chuo Gakuin University - 5:31:36
15. Hosei University - 5:31:51
16. Senshu University - 5:32:03
OP - Kanto Region Student Alliance - 5:38:46
17. Kanagawa University - 5:33:49
18. Daito Bunka University - 5:36:54
19. Yamanashi Gakuin University - 5:38:37
20. Nihon University - 5:38:46

text and photo © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Incredible edition, fantastic runs from the top 2 teams, 5th/6th stage this year made the difference between Agu and Komazawa.
The 10th place battle was a 5 stages thriller of epic proportions.
Koku Gakuin Lost perhaps the biggest opportunity they had/will have for a few years as they lose their top guys and arent likely to be as good at filling those top spots as AGU and Komazawa are.

Lookong forward to your numbers article as i have some thoughts on that too.

For now thanks for another fantastic 2 days and cheers to the greata that made these 4 years even more Amazing: Aii Ota, Kotaro Shonohara, Hirabayashi & Yamamoto, Wakabayashi & Nomura, Yoshida and others.
We saw Misura, Yoshii, Suzuki,Shonazu, Yegon, Yuito Yamamoto, Kondo& others impacting corporate ekiden the other day. With the 4th years coming up the corporate world will benefit so much.

Thanks Hakone Ekiden 101: unforgettable edition.
January 4, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Kobe Marathon Elite Field

Sunday's Kobe Marathon has announced its elite fields, finally. Japanese athletes have a shot at qualifying for next fall's MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, if they go sub-2:27 for the first Japanese woman across the line or sub-2:09 for the first 3 Japanese men to do it. There aren't a lot of contenders to pull it off. On the women's side, Kaede Hagitani , Ayaka Shimoyamada and Kotomi Tsubokura all ran 2:31-32 PBs in the spring and will need to step it up a couple of notches to get there. 2:23 Kenyan Antonina Kwambai is perfectly positioned to help. On the men's side, Keijiro Mogi is closest with a 2:09:06 at last year's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, Hiroto Kanamori his closest domestic competition with a 2:10:01 PB in Osaka in February. The international trio of last year's winner Barnaba Kipkoech , Elisha Rotich and Goitom Kifle all have recent 2:06-7 times and should help set it up for someone to get there, wh...
1 comment
Read more

Kenyan Graduate Student Athlete Posts Job Hunt for Ekiden Team on Twitter

A Kenyan runner who had tried to help lead his team to the Hakone Ekiden has taken an unusual approach to finding a post-graduation sponsor. Last week Patrick Kamau posted his job hunt on his Twitter account , saying, "I am looking for a club team or a corporate team where I can run in ekidens. I would be happy to run for any team that gave me a chance. I would be grateful for any opportunity and take it on with a positive attitude!" Kamau was 5th at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race half marathon in 1:01:10 last year during his 4th year at Jobu University . But despite his efforts, Jobu never qualified for Hakone during his 4 years there. He is currently working on a graduate degree while looking for "a team that will let me continue my competitive career." Fans responded to Kamau's job search posting, saying, "I hope it works out for you!" "Good luck comes to those who work hard" and "Kamau is going to graduate school? Given...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hofu Yomiuri Marathon Elite Field (updated)

Another big race on the MGC qualifying calendar has posted its elite fields, the Dec. 6 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon . It looks like a good race for the single MGC spot up for women under 2:27, and the 6 spots for men sub-2:09. Yuka Ando is the favorite in the women's race with a 2:21:18 in Nagoya 2 years ago, with her only real competition coming from Ayumi Morita , who broke 2:27 in Hofu last year but missed qualifying by not being the first Japanese woman across the line. CR holder Workneh Derese is back after his 2:06:58 win last year, leading Kenyan veteran Bedan Karoki and 4 Japanese men with a solid chance at sub-2:09, Tatsuya Maruyama , Ryoma Takeuchi , Shuho Dairokuno and Kento Nishi . Takeuchi set his 2:08:20 PB at Gold Coast in July, and Dairokuno is fresh off a great run at the final Kyushu Corporate Ekiden. Masatoshi Sakata , Yota Ifuku , Madoka Tanihara and Daiji Kawai have both come close to sub-2:09 in recent races and could factor in. 57th Hofu Yomiuri Marathon Elite...
1 comment
Read more