The sheer gravitational pull of the Hakone Ekiden drags most of the top high school boys' distance talent to the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region for university. But for those on the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe Kansai Region axis, Saturday's Tango University Ekiden was the peak of the season. In the race's 83rd edition, Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University men overcame a mid-race challenge from Kwansei Gakuin University to score a fourth-straight Tango win. Ritsumeikan first-year Hayato Omori got the team out of the gate well with a 27:33 to lead the 9.0 km First Stage. Ritsumeikan's next three runners held the lead, but a course record 35:31 on the 12.3 km Fifth Stage from Kwansei Gakuin's Sota Ueda dropped Ritsumeikan to 2nd. Kazuki Moriya extended Kwansei Gakuin's lead from 6 seconds to 1:04, but when KGU's seventh runner Yoshinobu Imai struggled Ritsumeikan's Maki Yamada was three to pick up the lead with a new stage record of 38:32 for 13.3 km. Anchor Ryota T...
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