japan running news

The Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden , the year-ending national championship for university women, happens this Friday at 10:00 a.m. Japan time, kicking off four days of the year's best racing over the course of five. Fuji TV has the live broadcast starting at 9:50 a.m., TVer has the streaming, and @JRNLive will have the English coverage. When it comes to the collegiate men's ekiden circuit it's a given that Tokyo-area schools are going to win and, in most cases, fill the podium, but the college women's ekidens are more genuinely national, and in that way have a type of excitement the men's races lack. The Mt. Fuji race has 7 hilly stages totaling 43.4 km, with a mostly downhill first two stages, a rolling middle four, and an anchor stage that climbs almost 170 m. And Meijo University is going to win. Meijo is the four-time defending champ and is fresh off a sixth-straight win at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden where it won 5 of the 6 stages, 3 in CR time. The ...

The Kanto Region qualifier for October's National University Women's Ekiden took place Sunday in Inzai, Chiba on a 6-stage, 34.4 km course, its first time in 3 years back on the roads. 5th at Nationals last year, Nittai University won in 1:55:03, its first time to win the qualifier in 8 years. 2021 Nationals 3rd-placer Takushoku University was 2nd in 1:55:33. Takushoku ran without collegiate 10000 m NR holder Seira Fuwa , who won the Sept. 10 National University Track and Field Championships 10000 m in a comeback from an injury in January. Planning for "a race that wouldn't rely on one runner," head coach Toshiharu Igarashi was very positive about finishing only 30 seconds behind Nittai, saying, "Our goal was 5th. Having exceeded that by a long shot is going to pay off later." Igarashi spoke well of senior Kae Gyu , who handled the longest stage, 8.6 km. "The results of everything she's done up to now are starting to come out now," he sa...