Skip to main content

Kyoto Wins National Women's Ekiden for 19th Time in 43 Years


Host team Kyoto was back on top at Sunday's National Women's Ekiden, taking the lead on the 2nd of the 42.195 km race's 9 legs and rolling on to win its 19th national title in the event's 43-year history in 2:15:26 with 4 individual stage wins.

Kyoto's lead runner Kokoro Nakachi was only 3 seconds behind First Stage winner Erika Tanoura of Chiba, and it didn't take much for its next runner Yua Sato to move into the top spot by 3 seconds. That lead grew to 50 seconds at the end of the Fifth Stage before a stage-winning run from Nagano's Nami Kawakami on the Sixth Stage cut it back to 33 seconds. But driven by stage wins from 7th runner Momoka Onishi and anchor Kaede Kawamura, from there to the end Kyoto pulled away to its final margin of victory of 2:26.

Nagano and Osaka were locked in a duel for 2nd for most of the way, but with only 3 km to go on the 10.0 km anchor stage Fukuoka and early leader Chiba caught up to make it a four-way race. Nagano's Yuna Wada fell off as the pace picked up when they were caught, and it came down to a 3-way battle over the track. Chiba's Nanaka Izawa made the first move, but a counter from Fukuoka's Miyaka Sugata shut her down. Sugata looked like she could hang on to 2nd, but in the home straight Osaka's Natsuki Omori went by to take 2nd in 2:17:52, Fukuoka 3rd in 2:17:53 and Chiba 4th in 2:17:57.

Nagano, Hiroshima, Okayama and Aichi rounded out the 8-deep podium. Former 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka of Nagasaki ran down fast-starting current 5000 m NR holder Nozomi Tanaka of Hyogo halfway through the anchor stage but came 14 seconds short of making the podium, taking 9th in 2:19:03 with Hyogo 13 seconds behind in 10th.

43rd National Women's Ekiden

Kyoto, 12 Jan. 2024
47 teams, 9 stages, 42.195 km

Top Team Results
1. Kyoto - 2:15:26
2. Osaka - 2:17:52
3. Fukuoka - 2:17:53
4. Chiba - 2:17:57
5. Nagano - 2:18:13
6. Hiroshima - 2:18:42
7. Okayama - 2:18:45
8. Aichi - 2:18:49
9. Nagasaki - 2:19:03
10. Hyogo - 2:19:16

Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (6.0 km)
1. Erika Tanoura (Chiba) - 19:17
2. Airi Mashiba (Nagano) - 19:19
3. Sora Shinozakura (Kanagawa) - 19:20
4. Kokoro Nakachi (Kyoto) - 19:20
5. Kana Mizumoto (Osaka) - 19:22

Second Stage (4.0 km) 
1. Mona Utsunomiya (Hokkaido) - 12:33
2. Yua Sato (Kyoto) - 12:37
3. Yuzu Nishide (Osaka) - 12:38
4. Nagisa Shimotabira (Miyazaki) - 12:40
5. Haruka Suguro (Kanagawa) - 12:41

Third Stage (3.0 km) 
1. Koko Fujisawa (Gunma) - 9:30
2. Koa Setoguchi (Kagoshima) - 9:32
3. Yua Nagamori (Toyama) - 9:33
4. Sena Tatsukawa (Yamaguchi) - 9:37
5. Mayu Ishihara (Okayama) - 9:38

Fourth Stage (4.0 km) 
1. Yumi Yamamoto (Kyoto) - 12:49
2. Asa Kobayashi (Hyogo) - 12:58
3. Sara Isobe (Aichi) - 13:02
4. Manami Nishiyama (Kanagawa) - 13:03
5. Azusa Sumi (Chiba) - 13:04

Fifth Stage (4.1075 km) 
1. Nodoka Ashida (Kyoto) - 12:58
2. Mei Hosomi (Hiroshima) - 13:05
3. Yua Tsukamoto (Osaka) - 13:12
4. Mai Kubota (Nagano) - 13:17
5. Yui Onotora (Miyagi) - 13:19

Sixth Stage (4.0875 km) 
1. Nami Kawakami (Nagano) - 12:51
2. Aika Murai (Osaka) - 12:56
3. Sayo Imanishi (Chiba) - 12:58
4. Tomo Muramatsu (Kyoto) - 13:08
5. Anna Shubulchek (Ibaraki) - 13:15

Seventh Stage (4.0 km) 
1. Momoka Onishi (Kyoto) - 12:42
2. Anri Watanabe (Aichi) - 12:52
3. Rio Kawamura (Osaka) - 12:55
4. Kohana Dozono (Kagoshima) - 12:59
5. Mao Ishikawa (Chiba) - 13:03

Eighth Stage (3.0 km) 
1. Ema Gendai (Ehime) - 9:46
2. Shiho Kurokawa (Toyama) - 9:52
3. Wakana Minami (Okayama) - 9:54
4. Kirari Takeda (Kagoshima) - 9:56
5. Aika Koreeda (Mie) - 10:02 

Ninth Stage (10.0 km) 
1. Kaede Kawamura (Kyoto) - 31:48
2. Nanaka Izawa (Chiba) - 32:08
3. Miyaka Sugata (Fukuoka) - 32:10
4. Ririka Hironaka (Nagasaki) - 32:11
5. Kana Kobayashi (Tokushima) - 32:27

© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
Erika Tanoura (Chiba) from the Sekisui Kagaku team continues to impress after her stage win at the Queens Ekiden last year. And what more can I say about Yumi Yamamoto. Another stage win but no course record this time. Superb. I didn't realize Kaede Kawamura won the final leg as she was running alone and had no one to chase. Well done to her. Miyaka Sugata probably took a baby step back from her stellar progression. It was an enthralling finish for the race to 2nd place! I really thought Sugata had it in the bag when she made her move. Nanaka Izawa ran another solid time given her marathon build which is looking very strong. And it is good to see Ririka Hironaka making ever so slight improvement, giving me hope she can find her way back to her best. Kyoto were well deserved winners and the Ritsumeikan Univ members played an important role in setting up their victory. Congratulations to Kyoto!
January 13, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

2026 Tokyo Marathon Elite Field

The Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon has great fields this year, so let's get right to it. The women's field has 3 of last year's top 10, winner for the 2nd year in a row and Tokyo CR holder Sutume Asefa Kebede , 3rd-placer and 2025 Chicago winner Hawi Feysa , and 5th-placer and 2025 Berlin winner Rosemary Wanjiru , plus 2024 Valencia winner Megertu Alemu , 2025 Prague winner Bertukan Welde , 2024 Paris winner Mestawut Fikir , 2024 Osaka winner Waganesh Mekasha , former WR holder Brigid Kosgei , and a lot more. Japanese hopes pretty much go to all-time #7 Ai Hosoda , 2:20:31 in Berlin 2024 but who announced this month that she is retiring after Tokyo despite having qualified for the 2028 Olympic marathon trials with her 2:23:27 for 6th in Sydney last year. Other internationals include Canadian Malindi Elmore , American Sara Hall , a big Chinese group led by Yuyu Xia , Poland's Aleksandra Brzezińska and Australian Vanessa Wilson . The men's race has 5 of last year's top 1...
4 comments
Read more

Measuring Marathon Courses by Bicycle

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0110&f=column_0110_034.shtml translated by Brett Larner The full marathon is a sport where you compete over 42.195 km, but how do they go about measuring that distance?  Today we're going to look a little bit at how they go about certifying the distance of a marathon. The reality is that major international marathons use a bicycle to measure the distance.  This rule is an international standard, and the same method of measurement is used everywhere.  It was put into place in 1986.  In order to ensure that the same method is used everywhere, a bicycle that meets IAAF specifications must be used for measurement. In the case of Japan's major marathons, to be certain that the distance is correct a provisional measurement is first made.  Before the course is certified using a bicycle the course is measured using a 50 m-long length of wire to determine that it is in fact 42.195 km.  When a bicycle is u...
2 comments
Read more

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...
2 comments
Read more