japan running news

The university men's ekiden circuit is 100% dominated by schools from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, but for women it's more geographically diverse, the last two big dynasty schools being the Tokai Region's Meijo University and the Kansai Region's Ritsumeikan University with Kanto's Daito Bunka University a perpetual close 2nd at both of the main races, Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden and December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden . Last year Kanto's Josai University scored upset wins at both Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji , to make it a rare Kanto sweep. At Morinomiyako DBU was 2nd yet again with Meijo 3rd and Tohoku region local Tohoku Fukushi University a surprise 4th to hold 2024 winner and top Kansai team Ritsumeikan back to 5th. At Mt. Fuji Tohoku Fukushi almost pulled off a shock win on the anchor stage before Josai came back on the final climb, bumping DBU down to 3rd and Meijo to 4th, with Ritsumeikan 5th there too. Fresh names at the top of the list a...

University men's ekiden season got started with the Izumo Ekiden two weeks ago and last weekend's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race. This week it's the first national-level university women's ekiden of the season, the Morinomiyako Ekiden in Sendai. Because of Hakone's popularity and Tokyo's massive size the Kanto Region dominates men's running to the point that it's almost impossible for a university from any other part of the country to beat even a single Kanto team at Izumo or next month's National University Men's Ekiden. Not so at Morinomiyako or December's Mt. Fuji University Women's Ekiden. The Kanto Region still has the biggest share of the field, with 11 of the 26 teams in the field this year based in Kanto. But it doesn't dominate the same way it does for collegiate men. There's almost always a Kanto Region team in the top 3, and it's almost always last year's 2nd-placer Daito Bunka University , but a Kant...