The Tango University Ekiden , the 86th Kansai Region university men's championship race, happened Saturday on an 8-leg, 74.4 km course through Kyoto from Miyazu to Tango. Kyoto Sangyo University successfully defended its win last year in 3:47:52 to take its 34th Kansai title. KSU got off to a slow start, 35 seconds behind the leader in 6th after the opening leg. But on the 11.8 km 2nd leg Kaito Kojima , the top Japanese finisher in September's National University Championships 10000 m, was outstanding. Passing one team after another, he overtook leader Ritsumeikan University near halfway on his stage and pushed on to break the CR he set last year by 11 seconds. By the time he handed off he had a lead of 50 seconds over Ritsumeikan. Ritsumeikan closed that back down to 11 seconds over the 3rd leg, but KSU's 4th runner Taiyo Yamaguchi reopened it with a stage best run. The rest of the team ran a stable safety race, and anchor Daiki Kuwata was all smiles as he broke the ta...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007