by Brett Larner photos by rikujolove click here for Hakone Ekiden Day One report and results After an inspiring Hakone Ekiden Day One performance that saw first-year Kazuki Tamura set the Fourth Stage record and third-year Daichi Kamino deliver a soaring record on the famous uphill Fifth Stage on the way to a Day One course record win, Aoyama Gakuin University came to Day Two of Hakone 's 91st running aspiring to something even higher. With a 4:59 lead and 109.6 km to run Aoyama Gakuin had a margin of nearly 3 seconds per km over the nearest competition, Meiji University , and more over defending champion Toyo University and the heavy pre-race favorite, four-time National University Ekiden winner Komazawa University . Head coach Susumu Hara was cautiously optimistic pre-race, saying that he was most concerned about the Sixth Stage, with over 800 m of icy downhill in the middle 10 km of a 20.8 km leg, and that if they could get through that safely then the rest ...
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