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Hakone Ekiden Field Size to be Increased by 2 Teams


Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR announced May 18 that the Yosenkai qualifying race for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden will be held Oct. 17 on its usual 21.0975 km half marathon course starting at the Tachikawa Air SDF Base in western Tokyo and finishing next door at Showa Kinen Park. The top 10 teams at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January including winner Aoyama Gakuin University auto-qualified for the 103rd Hakone. All other schools in the Kanto Region must run the Yosenkai to qualify, fielding up to 12 athletes with their first 10 finishers scored on aggregate time. The 10 fastest teams will go on to the main event next January.

The field this time is expected to include Toyo University, which finished 14th at the 102nd Hakone to break a 20-year+ streak of top 10 finishes, 15th-place Nittai University which will be looking to make Hakone for the 79th year in a row, and the debuting Shibaura Kogyo University. It's an exciting mix of traditional powerhouses and up-and-coming programs doing battle for the 10 tickets to the sport's biggest race.

Beginning with the 104th Hakone Ekiden in 2028, the field size will be increased to 23 teams including the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team. In anniversary years, previously celebrated every 5 years but now changed to every 4 years, the field will include an additional 3 teams to make 26 including the Student Alliance team. The 103rd Hakone Ekiden next January will be the last with the until now standard field size of 20 teams plus the Student Alliance.

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