Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR have announced details for the qualifying half marathon for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The Yosenkai qualifying race will be held Oct. 17 in Tachikawa, Tokyo. The combined times of the 10 fastest finishers from each participating team will be used for team scoring, with the 10 fastest teams going on the the main event next January and top-placing individuals from teams that do not qualify being names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team.
One change from previous years is that the number of runners each school can enter has been increased from 14 to 16. Teams will still only be allowed to have from 10 to 12 athletes on the starting line, but the move gives coaches greater flexibility in making the final decision on their starting rosters.
No changes have been made to the qualifying times of 34:00 for 10000 m or 1:13:00 for the half marathon, and the new earlier starting time of 8:30 a.m. introduced last year in an effort to mitigate increasing temperatures also remains in place.
The Yosenkai field this year is expected to include the perennially strong Chuo Gakuin University, who won the qualifying race last year but narrowly missed on making the seeded top 10 at Hakone itself, and Toyo University, a Hakone regular knocked back to the Yosenkai for the first time in 21 years. Hosei University will be trying to make it back after missing a qualifying spot by seconds last year when it was 11th at the Yosenkai.
The top 10 at this year's Hakone Ekiden have already qualified for next year's race: Aoyama Gakuin University, Koku Gakuin University, Juntendo University, Waseda University, Chuo University, Komazawa University, Josai University, Soka University, Teikyo University and Nihon University.
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translated by Brett Larner
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