Skip to main content

Saturday's Tango University Ekiden to be Stopped If Bears Appear on Course


Following a bear attack that critically injured an area man on Nov. 2, this week the Kansai Collegiate Athletics Association announced measures that will be taken if a bear appears on the course at Saturday's Tango University Ekiden, the 87th Kansai Region university men's ekiden championships. 22 collegiate teams from the Kansai region are scheduled to compete, along with 2025 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University in a special guest appearance.

If a bear sighting is confirmed near the 1st leg of the race before the start, the race will be delayed until it is determined safe to start. If a bear appears along any section of the course during the race, that leg of the ekiden will be stopped and the next stage's runners will all start at the same time. In that scenario the winner will be determined by adding up the performances on completed legs and disallowing the stopped sections.

Translator's note: Assuming the race goes ahead as scheduled, streaming will start at 8:30 a.m. Saturday Japan time with the race starting at 8:50.

source article:


Comments

Most-Read This Week

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .