The qualifying race for the Nov. 24 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships took place Oct. 20 in the town of Munakata, Fukuoka. Covering 42.195 km in six stages, in its fifth running the Princess Ekiden hosted 28 teams competing for the 14 qualifying spots on offer. Sekisui Kagaku took 1st among them in 2:19:36, holding off runner-up Kyudenko by 16 seconds with 3rd-placer Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo another 4 seconds behind. 7th-place Hitachi qualified for Nationals for the first time in 3 years, and 14th-place Uniqlo made it in for the first time in 4 years, while Kagoshima Ginko was the unlucky 15th-place team, just 33 seconds short of qualifying. Two new stage records were set, Kaede Hagitani (Edion) running a new record of 22:28 for the 7.0 km First Stage and marathoner Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei) running 34:42 for the 10.4 km Fourth Stage a month after a DNF at the MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials. Princess Ekiden National Corporate Women's Ekid...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007