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

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...
1 comment
Read more

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...
1 comment
Read more

Asian Games Competition Schedule

The daily athletics event schedule for September's Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games . Wednesday, Sept. 23 7:30 - Women's / Men's Half Marathon Race Walk Final Thursday, Sept. 24 10:00 - Women's Heptathlon 100 mH 10:20 - Mixed 4x400 m Relay Heats 10:30 - Men's Triple Jump Heats 10:40 - Women's Heptathlon High Jump 19:05 - Men's High Jump Heats 19:13 - Women's Heptathlon Shot Put 19:33 - Women's 100 m Heats 19:44 - Women's Triple Jump Final 20:08 - Men's 100 m Heats 20:55 - Men's Discus Throw Final 21:00 - Women's Heptathlon 200 m 21:25 - Women's 10000 m Final 22:15 - Mixed 4x400 m Relay Final Friday, Sept. 25 10:00 - Women's Heptathlon Long Jump 10:30 - Men's 400 m Heats 11:25 - Women's Heptathlon Javelin Throw 19:05 - Women's Shot Put Final 19:13 - Women's 100 m Semifinal 19:33 - Men's 100 m Semifinal 20:03 - Women's Pole Vault Final 20:11 - Women's Heptathlon 800 m 20:32 - Men's 10000 m Final 20:40 - M...
Post a Comment
Read more