Skip to main content

Aoyama Gakuin, Ritsumeikan Uji and Tottori Johoku Win Oga Ekiden


110 teams took part in the 72nd National Oga Ekiden in Akita Saturday, with 30 teams in the open division, 12 universities, 44 high school boys' teams and 24 high school girls' teams. The Shingenden Kogyo corporate team won the open division for the 2nd year in a row, with Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University winning the 7-stage, 64.8 km university division in 3:14:28.

In the 5-stage, 21.0975 km high school girls' race, Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. took the win in 1:10:43. Right from the start it was a tough race against Sendai Ikuei H.S., which fielded 3 teams. Ritsumeikan Uji's lead runner Yui Ueda and Sendai Ikuei A's Rikka Kuroda both clocked 14:09, and a great stage-winning run from 2nd runner Nodoka Ashida put Ritsumeikan Uji out front. But Sendai Ikuei B's Miriam Njeri closed down the lead from 1:14 to 24 seconds on the 3rd leg, and her teammate Non Tachibana rode that momentum to overtake Ritsumeikan Uji for the lead.

It came down to the anchor stage, where Ritsumeikan Uji's Miyu Kobayashi closed down a 5-second deficit to Sendai Ikuei B and turned it into a 9-second margin of victory. Sendai Ikuei B was 2nd in 1:10:52, with its A-team 3rd in 1:11:25. 2024 National High School Ekiden winner Kamimura Gakuen H.S. was 4th in 1:11:34.

In the 7-stage, 42.195 km high school boys' race, Tottori Johoku H.S. was 1st across the finish line in 2:06:51. But because Tottori Johoku was running in a non-competitive capacity, Rakunan H.S. was the official winner in 2:07:57. Tottori Johoku's Ojiro Honda went straight into the lead on the opening leg. Sendai Ikuei H.S. took over on the 3rd leg with a stage win from Tsukasa Wakabayashi, and built its lead on the 4th and 5th legs. But on the 6th leg Tottori Johoku closed it back down to 1 second, then ran away on the anchor stage to finish 1st.

Official winner Rakunan was 5th after the 1st leg and dropped as far as 7th by the 4th leg. But its momentum turned after that, moving up one place on the 5th leg and then 6th runner Ryoya Taniguchi turning in a stage win to move into 3rd. Anchor Taishi Nojiri was also the fastest on his leg, covering the 9.3 km stage in 27:31 to pass Sendai Ikuei and open a lead of 1:04. In 2nd was 2024 National High School Ekiden winner Saku Chosei H.S. in 2:08:11, with Sendai Ikuei falling to 3rd in 2:09:04, holding off Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. by just 4 seconds.

Complete results: Open ・ University ・ High School Boys ・ High School Girls


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Takei Breaks Gold Coast Marathon CR in Dominant Japanese Run

Japanese men showed up in force at the 45th ASICS Gold Coast Marathon Sunday in Australia, taking the top 6 spots and 8 of the top 10 led by a 2:07:33 course record by Yuki Takei . Expert pacing by World Marathon Majors-bound Tsubasa Ichiyama and Masato Arao kept things on track to break the 2:07:40 CR by 30 seconds until Arao stepped off at 30 km, a 30 km that saw at least two falls, one by 2:08:40 runner Ryoma Takeuchi at 23 km and another by debuting 61-minute half marathoner Tatsuya Tsunashima at 27 km. In Tsunashima's case it was enough to knock him out of the race when he hit his head on the pavement, send to the hospital post-race for examination. When Arao stepped off former Aoyama Gakuin University ekiden specialist Aoi Ota went straight to the front, looking to make up for a stellar and predictable DNF at this year's Tokyo Marathon in prep for Berlin by getting an easy finish under his belt. Right on him was Yuki Takei , 2:08:06 in Osaka the week before Tokyo. ...
1 comment
Read more

National Track and Field Championships Highlights

Japan's National Championships happened Friday through Sunday at Tokyo's National Stadium, the same track where September's World Championships will take place. The biggest result of the weekend came in the women's 800 m, where high schooler Rin Kubo cleaned up the mess caused last when she became the first Japanese woman under 2 minutes but did it at a JAAF-sanctioned time trial meet that hadn't been registered to the World Athletics calendar. In Saturday's final she bettered that time with a 1:59.52, making it a national record that WA will actually recognize. The only other record set came in the women's 5000 m on Friday, where NR holder Nozomi Tanaka set a meet record 14:59.02 to win a competitive race over Ririka Hironaka , 2nd in 15:12.61, and Kana Mizumoto , 3rd in a big PB of 15:13.19. Tanaka doubled back in the 1500 m Sunday, duly winning in 4:04.16. Veteran Tomoka Kimura ran a PB of 4:09.88 for 2nd, giving a big boost to her chances of making i...
2 comments
Read more