Skip to main content

Kise and Kyoyama Win National Junior High School Ekiden


The 33rd National Junior High School Ekiden took place in Shiga's Kibogaoka Bunka Park, with boys running 18 km in 6 legs and girls 12 km in 5 legs. Making Nationals for the first time, Gunma's Kise J.H.S. won the boys's race, while Okayama's Kyoyama J.H.S. became only the 3rd school in event history to pull off a threepeat.

Ryunosuke Ideta (Chukyo J.H.S.), winner of the boys' 3000 m at last summer's Okinawa National Junior High School Track and Field Championships, and girls' 1500 m champ Aika Koreeda (Utsube J.H.S.) both raced, the first time in 17 years that the winners of both the boys' and girls' long-distance events ran at the National Junior High School Ekiden. Both ran up to potential and won their stages.

Running the First Stage, Koreeda came to Nationals with a solid season since her national title on the track, winning at the National Sports Festival U16 and taking her 3000 m PB down to 9:34.44. Even with all the other schools' best runners positioned on the same stage, Koreeda went to the front from the start. Kyoyama's Iroha Nakanishi and Kioka Hirata (Matsunami J.H.S.) tried to put pressure on her, but Koreeda kept calm and carried on at the front of the lead group, ignoring others went they tried to pass her and staying focused on her own race.

"I'm good on uphills, so I attacked on them and relaxed a bit on the downhills," Koreeda said post-race. She finally broke free of Hirata on the last uphill, taking the stage win in 10:12. It was the first time for a runner from Mie prefecture to win a stage at the National Junior High School Ekiden. "Winning the National Junior High School Championships 1500 m on the track gave me the experience to pull it off here," she said. "Competing in the big races makes you less nervous."

While Koreeda led off, Ideta was assigned the anchor stage for Chukyo. Chukyo had been a favorite for the overall win, but the team struggled from early on, and Ideta was in 15th when he took over, 1:07 behind the leader. A come-from-behind win was probably out of reach, but Ideta gave it a go with aggressively fast running from the start. Gaining momentum on the first downhill, he started catching the competition one by one. 8th place, the bottom of the podium, had been about 30 seconds ahead when he started, but Ideta succeeded getting all the way up to 7th by the end of his run, clocking a stage-winning 9:11.

Chukyo's captain this year, Ideta said, "My job was to try to get to the finish line first no matter what place I was in when I got the tasuki. I'm happy I at least got the stage win."

Both Koreeda and Ideta plan to run January's National Women's Ekiden and National Men's Ekiden, a chance for them to score triple national titles this season. "I don't know what stage I'll be running yet, but my goal is to win whatever I run," Ideta said. "If I'm on the Second Stage then I want to break Kain Inagaki's 8:21 CR from last time."

33rd National Junior High School Ekiden

Kibogaoka Bunka Park, Shiga, 14 Dec. 2025
girls: 48 teams, 5 stages, 12 km
boys: 48 teams, 6 stages, 18 km

Girls
Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (3.0 km) - Aika Koreeda (Utsuno J.H.S.) - 10:12
Second Stage (2.0 km) - Hinano Sugawara (Kuroishino J.H.S.) - 6:44
Third Stage (2.0 km) - Mikoto Ando (Ryunan J.H.S.) - 7:03
Fourth Stage (2.0 km) - Sorano Sugawara (Kuroishino J.H.S.) - 6:55
Fifth Stage (3.0 km) - Chisato Shimoda (Kyoyama J.H.S.) - 10:27

Top Team Performances
1. Kyoyama J.H.S. (Okayama) - 42:07
2. Kuroishino J.H.S. (Iwate) - 42:24
3. Otokoyama Dalsan J.H.S. (Kyoto) - 42:42
4. Matsubashi J.H.S. (Kumamoto) - 42:50
5. Tsurugashima Fuji J.H.S. (Saitama) - 43:11
6. Matsunami J.H.S. (Kanagawa) - 43:11
7. Funehiki J.H.S. (Fukushima) - 43:13
8. Omigawa J.H.S. (Chiba) - 43:23
9. Shimodate Minami J.H.S. (Ibaraki) - 43:41
10. Ryunan J.H.S. (Aichi) - 43:53

Boys
Top Individual Stage Results
First Stage (3.0 km) - Shunta Sakai (Okazaki J.H.S.) - 9:13
Second Stage (3.0 km) - Eita Shimobayashi (Naruse J.H.S.) / Tomoki Negishi (Kawanakashima J.H.S.) - 9:16
Third Stage (3.0 km) - Ryoga Takahashi (Obusuma J.H.S.) - 9:30
Fourth Stage (3.0 km) - Seishiro Takada (Kise J.H.S.) - 9:19
Fifth Stage (3.0 km) - Tsubasa Osawa (Kise J.H.S.) - 9:33
Sixth Stage (3.0 km) - Ryunosuke Ideta (Chukyo J.H.S.) - 9:11

Top Team Results
1. Kise J.H.S. - 57:01
2. Miyazaki Oyodo J.H.S. - 57:38
3. Naruse J.H.S. - 57:52
4. Tokiwamatsu J.H.S. - 57:58
5. Kawanakashima J.H.S. - 57:58
6. Inami Kita J.H.S. - 58:21
7. Chukyo J.H.S. - 58:35
8. Otokoyama Daisan J.H.S. - 58:42
9. Tomita J.H.S. - 58:53
10. Matsubashi J.H.S. - 58:54

source article:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

Mashiko Breaks U20 5000 m NR - Weekend Track Roundup

Saturday's Kanakuri Memorial Meet in Kumamoto was the weekend's main event in Japanese track, but there were good results at the Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama too. Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku) led the men's 5000 m A-heat at Kanakuri in 13:14.06, with Tomonori Yamaguchi (SGH) clocking the fastest Japanese time in 13:16.38 in his first race as a corporate leaguer. Waseda University duo Rui Suzuki and Yota Mashiko went 6-7 in 13:20.64 and 13:22.87, the 18-year-old Mashiko shaving 0.04 off the U20 NR. In 8th, Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) ran a PB of 13:23.92. 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) continued to struggle after a weak indoor season, finishing 18th of 20 finishers in 13:45.10. 19-year-old Festus Kimorwo (Kurosaki Harima) was under 13:20 in the B-heat too, winning in a 13:19.59 PB. 2 more collegiate men broke 13:30, Daichi Fujita (Chuo Univ.) 8th in 13:28.93 and Riki Koike (Soka Univ.) 9th in 13:29.09. The top 6 in the men's 800 m A-hea...
Post a Comment
Read more

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."...
81 comments
Read more