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Thoughts on Disqualification in the Ekiden and Latitude in Application of Rules

http://www.47news.jp/smp/EN/201501/EN2015012001001451.html

by Jun Ikushima
translated by Brett Larner

At Sunday's National Men's Ekiden the Aichi Prefecture team was disqualified after its opening runner threw the tasuki, the sash that ekiden runners exchange, across the line to the next runner as he struggled to finish, the second time in a month that this sort of rare disqualification happened after an almost identical scene at last month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden, pictured above.  Prominent sportswriter Jun Ikushima wrote the following editorial about Aichi's disqualification.

On Jan. 18 in Hiroshima, the Saitama team won the National Men's Ekiden for the first time, but unusually for an ekiden there was also a disqualification.  Responsible for running the First Stage for the Aichi team, Atsushi Yamato (Aichi H.S.) became unsteady just before the handoff zone and couldn't quite make it to the line.  He tried to hold out the tasuki to pass it to w…