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Asahi Kasei Outkicks Honda to Win New Year Ekiden


No big surprises at the New Year Ekiden, where 2025 kicked off with a battle between favorites Toyota, Honda and Asahi Kasei that came down to a sprint finish in the last 800 m of the 7-leg, 100 km race.

2017-2020 New Year Ekiden winner Asahi Kasei took the lead from the start with an opening leg win by Sonata Nagashima. On the longest leg, the 21.9 km Second Stage, Yuto Imae from the team most expected to challenge the big three, GMO, made it to the front, but with a great run from Tomoki Ota the defending champs Toyota took the lead on the Third Stage. Samuel Kibathi held on over the short Fourth Leg, but on the Fifth Leg Yusuke Nishiyama showed fatigue from his 2:06:54 at Fukuoka a month ago and was run down by Olympic steepler Ryoma Aoki from 2022-2023 New Year winner Honda and Asahi Kasei's Shuho Dairokuno.

Looking very strong over a longer distance than he'd usually run, Aoki opened a 10-second lead on Dairokuno that Honda's 6th runner Toru Kubota turned into 12 by the final exchange. Anchor Ken Nakayama had brought Honda home in its 2023 win and ran with determination and focus on CR pace, but in his debut after graduating from Waseda University Asahi Kasei's Ryuto Igawa, 27:39.05 for 10000 m in November, wasn't going to let Nakayama get away.

Igawa quickly made up the 12-second difference and tucked in right behind Nakayama. Nakayama did all the work of battling the headwinds blowing in from the mountains, but Igawa stayed calm and impassive, and even a surge with 2 km to go couldn't shake him. From 800 m out Igawa went on the attack, blasting away and opening an incredible 20 seconds on Nakayama. Both broke the 15.6 km anchor stage CR by over 2 minutes, Igawa in 45:52 and Nakayama 46:12, and when Igawa hit the finish tape it meant a return to the top for the old school powerhouse Asahi Kasei for the first time in 5 years, 4:47:32 for the complete 100.0 km course.

Honda was 2nd again in 4:47:40, with Toyota dropping about a minute behind but hanging on to 3rd in 4:48:36. One-time leader GMO spent most of the race in 4th and finished there in 4:50:33, with local heroes Subaru outleaning Sumitomo Denko for 5th, both clocking 4:51:21. Mitsubishi Juko and Fujitsu rounded out the 8-deep podium in 4:51:48 and 4:52:24.

Standout individual performances included the New Year Ekiden debut of 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura for Subaru, 3rd on the opening leg in 34:31 and of 2024 Komazawa University captain Mebuki Suzuki for Toyota, 2nd on the 21.9 km Second Stage in 1:02:03, and comeback runs for Kazuki Tamura of Sumitomo Denko, 1st on the 15.3 km Third Stage in 42:58 and for Hakone Ekiden 2nd, 3rd and 4th leg CR holder Vincent Yegon with a win on the 7.6 km Fourth Stage in 20:37.

The performance of the day came from Kao's Yohei Ikeda, 2:05:12 in Berlin in September, who dominated the Second Stage with a 1:01:48 for 21.9 km, 59:33 half marathon pace. With an organized assault on the 1:00:00 half marathon NR on deck at Marugame in February and a home soil World Championships on the horizon, this year's New Year Ekiden showed that there are a lot of good things just around the corner in 2025.

2025 New Year Ekiden

National Corporate Men's Ekiden Championships
Gunma, 1 January 2025
41 teams, 7 stages, 100.0 km

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (12.3 km)
1. Sonata Nagashima (Asahi Kasei) - 34:29
2. Taisei Nakamura (Yakult) - 34:30
3. Ryuji Miura (Subaru) - 34:31
4. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 34:31
5. Shota Nishiwaki (JR Higashi Nihon) - 34:32
6. Kiseki Shiozawa (Fujitsu) - 34:32
7. Masaya Yamatani (Logisteed) - 34:33
8. Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) - 34:33
9. Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 34:34
10. Shingo Moriyama (YKK) - 34:35

Second Stage (21.9 km)
1. Yohei Ikeda (Kao) - 1:01:48 
2. Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 1:02:03
2. Yuto Imae (GMO) - 1:02:03 
4. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 1:02:19
5. Shinya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:02:23
6. Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:34
7. Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 1:02:36
8. Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima) - 1:02:45
8. Kotaro Kondo (SGH) - 1:02:45
10. Kohei Mukai (Mazda) - 1:02:48

Third Stage (15.3 km)
1. Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) - 42:58
2. Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) - 43:00
3. Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 43:08
4. Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) - 43:38
5. Tamaki Fujimoto (Logisteed) - 43:40
6. Yuichiro Ueno (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 43:41
7. Ryuto Urushibata (Yasukawa Denki) - 43:48
8. Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) - 43:52
9. Yuito Yamamoto (Subaru) - 43:53
9. Kenta Sekiguchi (SGH) - 43:53

Fourth Stage (7.6 km)
1. Vincent Yegon (Honda) - 20:37
2. Samuel Masai (Kao) - 20:44
3. Jacob Krop (GMO) - 20:47
4. Sitonik Kiprono (Kurosaki Harima) - 20:48 
5. Raphael Dapash (JR Higashi Nihon) - 20:55
6. Samuel Kibathi (Toyota) - 20:58
7. Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) - 20:59
8. Gideon Ronoh (Logisteed) - 21:01
9. Stanley Waithaka (Yakult) - 21:05
9. Gilbert Kiprotich (Sunbelx) - 21:05

Fifth Stage (15.9 km)
1. Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 46:36
2. Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) - 47:08
3. Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko) - 47:52
4. Ken Yokote (Fujitsu) - 47:56
5. Kanta Ikeda (Chugoku Denryoku) - 47:58
6. Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 48:03
7. Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx) - 48:06
8. Ryo Goda (Yasukawa Denki) - 48:16
9. Ryo Kuchimachi (Subaru) - 48:18
10. Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) - 48:19

Sixth Stage (11.4 km)
1. Yudai Shimazu (GMO) - 32:50
2. Jin Yuasa (Toyota) - 33:10
3. Toru Kubota (Honda) - 33:13
4. Ryo Saito (Asahi Kasei) - 33:15
5. Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) - 33:22
6. Shunsuke Sato (Yasukawa Denki) - 33:34
7. Ryota Matono (Mitsubishi Juko) - 33:43
8. Yuichiro Nishikawa (Sumitomo Denko) - 33:45
9. Masaki Sakuda (JR Higashi Nihon) - 33:49
10. Toshio Takaki (Sunbelx) - 33:56

Seventh Stage (15.6 km)
1. Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) - 45:52 - CR
2. Ken Nakayama (Honda) - 46:12
3. Hideyuki Tanaka (Toyota) - 46:26
4. Neo Namiki (Subaru) - 46:18
5. Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) - 46:36
6. Hiroki Nagayama (Sumitomo Denko) - 46:48
7. Shunpei Tomita (Logisteed) - 47:04
8. Haruka Onodera (Toyota Boshoku) - 47:06
9. Kota Murayama (GMO) - 47:08
10. Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) - 47:11
10. Seiya Amano (Kyudenko) - 47:11

Team Results
1. Asahi Kasei - 4:47:32
2. Honda - 4:47:40
3. Toyota - 4:48:36
4. GMO - 4:50:33
5. Subaru - 4:51:21
6. Sumitomo Denko - 4:51:21
7. Mitsubishi Juko - 4:51:48
8. Fujitsu - 5:42:24
9. Yasukawa Denki - 4:52:35
10. Kao - 4:52:58
11. Kyudenko - 4:53:56
12. Logisteed - 4:53:57
13. Yakult - 4:54:00
14. Kurosaki Harima - 4:54:05
15. JR Higashi Nihon - 4:54:17
16. Toyota Boshoku - 4:54:21
17. Sunbelx - 4:54:59
18. SG Holdings - 4:55:30
19. Chugoku Denryoku - 4:56:15
20. JFE Steel - 4:56:24
21. Osaka Gas - 4:56:29
22. Nishitetsu - 4:56:31
23. Toyota Kyushu - 4:56:32
24. Hiramatsu Byoin - 4:56:49
25. Aichi Seiko - 4:57:57
26. YKK - 4:58:10
27. Aisan Kogyo - 4:58:19
28. Toenec - 4:58:28
29. Mazda - 4:58:39
30. SID Group - 4:58:56
31. Chuo Hatsujo - 5:00:08
32. NTN - 5:00:19
33. Sekino Kosan - 5:00:22
34. Chudenko - 5:01:49
35. Togami Denki - 5:02:44
36. Otsuka Seiyaku - 5:02:47
37. Takeda Yakuhin - 5:23:10

© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Comments

j said…
So glad that Takeda Yakuhin, 20 minutes behind the closest finisher, was in this race. If JAAF/JITA was smart they would have a "Halloween Ekiden" or something like that to mirror the Princess Ekiden, they get another TV race out of it and it would actually be competitive unlike Kyushu where 9 teams raced for 9 spots, Chubu 7 teams for 7 spots, Hokuriku 2 teams for 2 spots, and Chugoku 4 teams for 5 spots.
January 2, 2025 at 7:13 AM
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