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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

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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
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