japan running news

Josai University followed up its women's domination of the college ekiden circuit this season and its men's 7th-place finish at the Hakone Ekiden with a start-to-finish win at the National University Mixed-Gender Ekiden , short and sweet with 6 stages of 2.0 to 5.0 km and 3 women and men from universities across the country. Only 9th last year, Josai was out front on the 1st leg and never looked back, winning all 6 individual stages. A 6:01 CR by Yuna Onishi on the women's 2.0 km 2nd leg and a 5:20 CR tie on the men's 2.0 k 5th leg by Manato Ozawa put Josai close to Nittai University 's 58:27 overall last year, but ultimately they came up just short in 58:30. But even that was enough to put Josai well over a minute ahead of Daito Bunka University , whose runner-up curse saw them finish 2nd yet again in 59:43, 2nd runner Mana Aiba tying Onishi's CR and helping keep DBU ahead of Juntendo University , 3rd in 59:46. Last year's 5th-placer Tsukuba University ...

After winning the Morinomiyako Ekiden for the first time in October, Josai University pulled off the double in an anchor stage battle against Tohoku Fukushi University and Daito Bunka University with all three going for their first-ever Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national title. 2024 Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji double champ Ritsumeikan University got off to a good start with a stage win from lead runner Yua Sato but plummeted to 9th when star 3rd-year Sayuki Ota was only 16th of 24 on the Second Stage. From there it was all Ritsumeikan could do to hang on to a place in the top 5, the same as its result in Morinomiyako this year. In its place, Josai went to the front off a CR of 20:36 for the 6.8 km Second Stage by 1st-year Kyo Honma to go with her opening leg CR at Morinomiyako. It stayed out front until the longest leg of the race, the 10.5 km Fifth Stage, where Sarah Wanjiru of perpetual runner-up DBU easily turned a 47-second deficit into a 47-second lead and Nazuki Sasaki ...

Sunday's National Women's Ekiden brings together the country's top distance runners from junior high school to the pros, all running for their home prefectures. NHK will broadcast the race live , commercial-free and nationwide starting at 12:30. local time. A quick guide to the top teams and athletes on each stage. Hosts Kyoto hold the record for most wins with 18 national titles, and they're expected to face tough competition from Osaka , Nagano , Kanagawa and Chiba . 2nd the last two years, this time around Kyoto's lineup features two members of Ritsumeikan University , the winner at this season's Morinomiyako Ekiden and Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden. Yumi Yamamoto ran in last year's U20 World Championships and set a new CR on her leg at the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, and she, teammate Tomo Muramatsu , and Kaede Kawamura , winner of December's Sanyo Ladies Road Race 10 km, give Kyoto's chances a big boost. 2023 winner Osaka has World Championsh...