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 Day 1 Highlights

There weren't any new meet records on the opening day of this year's National University Track and Field Championships in Yokohama, but some of the favorites still turned in good performances. Ranked #1 in the women's 1500 m, Airi Tajima (Juntendo Univ.) outran #3-ranked teammate Miori Kida for the win 4:14.81 to 4:17.57, with #4-ranked Mana Aiba (Daito Bunka Univ.) 3rd in 4:18.08 Juntendo took the top 2 spots in the men's 1500 m too, with #3-ranked Shuntaro Kawaguchi bettering #1-ranked teammate Takumi Nakagawa for the title 3:45.15 to 3:45.86. #5-ranked Soya Mizuno (Ritsumeikan Univ.) got past #2-ranked Koki Terada (Chuo Univ.) for 3rd in 3:46.00. The race walks saw upset wins. Ibuki Hori (Kansai Univ.) beat #2-ranked Toko Nakajima (Waseda Univ.) by 0.47 for the women's title in 21:44.38. After opening a lead late in the race Yushi Nakajima (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) got passed by Riku Kaneko (Kokushikan Univ.) in the last 200 m and finished 2nd in the ...

National University Championships Day 2 Highlights

Heavy rain through a lot of the day made for tough conditions for the 2nd day of the 95th National University Track and Field Championships in Yokohama, with more forecast for the final day on Monday. In a lot of the sprint and field events that held back the quality of the performances, but even so in 2 events athletes turned in meet record-breaking runs. In the men's 400 m, #3-ranked Kira Hirakawa (Toyo Univ.) and collegiate record holder Shinya Hayashi (Tsukuba Univ.) pushed each other the entire way, Hirakawa dipping for the win in 45.37 and Hayashi 2nd in 45.41. Both were way under the meet record of 45.75 set by Yuki Yamaguchi back in 2004 and tied by Julian Walsh in 2018. The other meet record came in the women's 4x100 m relay final, where MR holders Fukuoka University ran an almost identical lineup to the one that set the collegiate record of 43.91 and the MR of 44.31 last year. Rin Shibato , Mayuko Maeda and Aiha Yamagata returned from that team on the first 2 ...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

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