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

National University Championships Entry Lists and Streaming

The 95th National University Track and Field Championships run Friday through Monday at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama. The complete meet schedule and live results are here . The 10000 m races were already held separately earlier this season. Streaming starts at 9:00 a.m. Saturday Japan time, with separate field event channels and Day 2 and 3 streaming here . Top entries in each event with best performance in the qualifying window: Men 100 m Shoma Yamamoto (Hiroshima Univ.) - 10.04 Fukuto Komuro (Chuo Univ.) - 10.07 Naoki Nishioka (Tsukuba Univ.) - 10.09 Riku Oishi (Toyo Univ.) - 10.13 Kaito Kuroki (Chuo Univ.) - 10.14 Ryunosuke Mizuno (Waseda Univ.) - 10.14 Yugo Haitamataira (Juntendo Univ.) - 10.17 Shun Miyashita (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 10.19 200 m Akira Hayashi (Keio Univ.) - 20.36 Tomoru Funaki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 20.39 Oma Asai (Tsukuba Univ.) - 20.47 Reishin Yamamoto (Toyo Univ.) - 20.49 Shingo Suzuki (Tokai Univ.) - 20.54 Haruto Nakamura (Fukuoka Univ.) - 20.55 400 m Shinya Hayashi...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Monterey Welcomes Student-Athletes from Sister City Nanao, Japan

a press release by the Monterey-Nanao Cross Country Exchange Project photos here Fourteen student-athletes from Nanao High School in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, recently completed a weeklong visit to the Monterey Peninsula as part of the Monterey–Nanao Cross Country Exchange Project , bringing together young people from the two Sister Cities through running, education, environmental stewardship, cultural exchange, and friendship. The seven boys and seven girls from Nanao were paired with 14 members of the Monterey High School cross country team and stayed in their homes throughout the visit. The week marked the first half of a reciprocal exchange that will continue when the Monterey students travel to Nanao later this year. The visitors received their first introduction to Monterey shortly after arriving at Monterey High School, walking with their hosts to Sister City Park and gathering for photographs beside the sign honoring Nanao — a fitting beginning for a week devoted to bringin...

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