Princess Ekiden Preview and Streaming

Sunday's Princess Ekiden is the qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championship race. In contrast to corporate men's teams, who are divided into regions for their qualifying races which they have to run every year because the New Year Ekiden national championships doesn't currently have a seeded podium, the women's system gives the top 8 teams at the Queens Ekiden guaranteed places at the next year's race and sends the rest back to a single qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden.

This frees up the top tier of women's teams, currently Japan Post, Sekisui Kagaku, Shimamura, Panasonic, Edion, Iwatani Sangyo, Daiichi Seimei and Shiseido, to do things like this weekend's Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon or overseas races. 31 other teams will race at the Princess Ekiden, 42.195 km in 6 stages, to try to take one of the 16 remaining spots in the Queens Ekiden field. Teams at Princess are listed in the order they finished at last year's Queens Ekiden, then the order they finished last year's Princess Ekiden for 17th and beyond, with new teams filling out the bottom slots.

Uniqlo won last year's Princess Ekiden and was 9th at Queens by just 9 seconds, putting them in the top position this year. Tenmaya and Daihatsu are traditional powerhouses that got knocked off the Queens podium by last year's Princess 3rd-placer Edion and 7th-place Shimamura, meaning their chances of a top 16 finish here to get back to the national race are good. Others like Toyota Jidoshokki, Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo and Otsuka Seiyaku, which includes Tokyo World Championships marathoner Kana Kobayashi, are reliable enough to also be pretty much sure to qualify. And Shimamura's success last year with going from 7th at Princess to 3rd at Queens, shows what any of them could do in a good year.

Things get interesting down around the cutoff line for qualification. Last year both Tokyo Metro and Bears made the Queens Ekiden for the first time, Tokyo Metro finishing 20th of 24 there and Bears 23rd. Qualifying for a 2nd year in a row would be a big step in making sure that their sponsor companies stay interesting in keeping the relatively new programs going. Others like Shin Nihon Jusetsu Group, last at Princess last year in their debut, don't have much chance of qualifying but are looking to make progress for the same reason. #30 Kraftia is actually the longstanding Kyudenko team which underwent rebranding at the start of the month, while #31 Comodi Iida is an actual new addition, one of the few companies to have both men's and women's teams.

TBS is broadcasting the race live starting at 12:10 Sunday local time. It'll also be streaming unedited camera feeds from 3 different camera trucks and motorcycles on Youtube, which should be available to watch overseas.

Princess Ekiden

National Corporate Women's Ekiden qualifying race

31 teams, 6 stages, 42.195 km

top 16 teams qualify for Queens Ekiden national championship

complete field listing here

1. Uniqlo

2. Tenmaya

3. Daihatsu

4. Toyota Jidoshokki

5. Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo

6. Sysmex

7. Higo Ginko

8. Otsuka Seiyaku

9. Route Inn Hotels

10. Hitachi

11. Kyocera

12. Tokyo Metro

13. Denso

14. Nitori

15. Bears

16. Starts

17. Daiso

18. 18 Shinwa Ginko

19. SID Group

20. Universal Entertainament

21. Noritz

22. Memolead

23. Senko

24. Kagoshima Ginko

25. Ehime Ginko

26. Canon

27. Toto

28. Wacoal

29. Shin Nihon Jusetsu Group

30. Kraftia

31. Comodi Iida

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