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

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

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...
1 comment
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview

The Nagoya Women's Marathon , the world's largest women-only marathon and the last race in the selection cycle for September's Tokyo World Championships, happens Sunday. Weather conditions are looking better than what they had in Tokyo and Osaka the last two weekends, 7Ëš at the start and rising to 12Ëš with sunny skies. The wind looks a bit stronger than ideal, but it could be worse. Fuji TV has the live broadcast starting at 9:00 a.m. Sunday local time, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch the TVer streaming . One option for  a leaderboard is here , and another here . We'll have some coverage on @JRNLive . Just like last time around there are three Ethiopian and Kenyan-born athletes at the top list, this time it being sub-2:20 women Sheila Chepkirui , winner in NYC last year, and Ruti Aga , winner in Xiamen in January, and last year's Nagoya runner-up Eunice Chebichii Chumba . But last year Yuka Ando still pulled off the win, so there's a c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...
1 comment
Read more