by Brett Larner A year after ending its 24-year streak of National University Men's Ekiden Championships appearances, Yamanashi Gakuin University returned to the fold with a win at the Championships' Kanto Region Qualifer June 30 at Tokyo's National Stadium. A meet consisting of four 10000 m heats each with two men from each of the twenty entered universities, team scores are calculated by the combined times of all eight of a school's entered runners. The five teams with the fastest cumulative time go on to November's National Championships. Nittai University held a 17-second lead over Yamanashi Gakuin coming into the fourth and fastest heat, where Yamanashi Gakuin's new Kenyan recruit Enock Omwamba led start to finish to take the individual win in 28:39.13 and, together with his teammate Hiroto Inoue 's 29:01.28 PB, give Yamanashi Gakuin a 15-second win over Nittai in the final scoring. Omwamba was accompanied for a large part...
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