japan running news

by Sota Nakanishi The 100th running of the Hakone Ekiden took place Jan. 2-3, 2024 . Nobuhisa Sakata , 82, former deputy sports director at Nippon TV which began broadcasting Hakone with its 63rd edition in 1987, talked about the behind-the-scenes work that made the impossibility of a live broadcast of the massive two-day event a reality. Sakata became interested in the Hakone Ekiden with its 40th running when he started working at Nippon TV in 1964. The promising Juntendo University 2nd-year Keisuke Sawaki ran despite having knee pain pre-race. He finished 15th of 15 on the highly competitive Second Stage, but afterward head coach Hiroaki Chosa defended him, saying, "We need to have people we can put in charge of the Second Stage all four years or we'll never be able to win Hakone." Two years later during Sawaki's senior year Juntendo won for the first time. Sakata was deeply moved by the determination they had put into Hakone and their preparation for it. He im...

The Nippon TV broadcast of Aoyama Gakuin University 's overall win at the 100th Hakone Ekiden pulled in average ratings of 28.3% during the Jan. 3 day two return trip, according to data released by Video Research, Inc. Average ratings on day one, also won by Aoyama Gakuin, were 26.1%. Last year's ratings were 27.5% for day one and 29.6% for day two. Shizuoka prefecture had the highest regional ratings on day one at 27.8%, with both Shizuoka and Kanto scoring 28.3% ratings on day two. Ratings were lowest in Kansai at 14.6% for day one and 16.4% for day two. The Hakone Ekiden broadcast's highest average ratings came in 2021 when Komazawa University won for the first time in 13 years, when 31.0% watched day one and 33.7% day two. Tokai University 's first-ever win in 2019 also attracted ratings over 30% both days, with 30.7% watching day one and 32.1% day two. Translator's note: It's surprising to see the ratings were down a bit from last year, but it's not...

Josai University 's Yuito Yamamoto was the only individual athlete to set a new course record for one of the Hakone Ekiden's ten stages, but the 100th was still a record-breaking edition in other ways. Both defending champion Komazawa University and eventual winner Aoyama Gakuin University broke Aoyama Gakuin's old record of 5:21:16 for the 107.5 km, ~800 m uphill Day One course, Komazawa running a strong 5:20:51 but AGU destroying them in 5:18:13. Day Two wasn't especially fast, but with a 3:03 margin on the overall CR from its Day One win, AGU went on to take 2:17 off its 2022 record of 10:43:42 for the complete 217.1 km course in 10:41:25, an average of 2:57.3/km. Komazawa also went under the 3:00/km barrier in 10:48:00, 2:59.1/km, a time that would have been good enough to win almost any previous edition and only 49 seconds slower than its winning time last year. A total of nine teams broke 11 hours, consistent with the explosion in depth since 2020. Yamamoto w...

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR named Yuito Yamamoto (4th yr., Josai University) MVP of this year's 100th running on Jan. 2 and 3. On the uphill Fifth Stage peaking at 874 m, Yamamoto broke the course record for the second year in a row, playing a key role in Josai University achieving its best-ever placing of 3rd. In explaining the reasons for Yamamoto's selection for the award, a KGRR spokesperson said, "He was the only person to set a new CR at this year's race. Setting a new record in cold and rainy weather is something we rated highly." Yamamoto told reporters, "I'm very grateful to have been given this award. It was a great experience that will have an impact on my future career in running." After graduating, Yamamoto will join the Subaru corporate team in April. "I want to do the marathon," he said. "I want to build myself up to be ready for the next MGC Olympic marathon trials and to make the podium in Los Angeles." This...

Aoyama Gakuin University brought the first century of the Hakone Ekiden to a close with a dominant performance that took over two minutes off its own course record to put an end to defending champ Komazawa University 's hopes of becoming the first team to win all three major university ekidens two years in a row. After a hard-fought opening day that saw both teams break the Day One course record , Aoyama Gakuin's Akimu Nomura needed to hold its 2:38 lead over Komazawa over the downhill Sixth Stage, 20.8 km with a steep climb at the start and an ~800 m drop to the exchange zone, and when he opened it to 4:17 the race was all but over. Komazawa's Taiyo Yasuhara initially closed incrementally on AGU's Kento Yamauchi on the 21.3 km Seventh Stage, but Yamauchi turned it around in the second half to outrun Yasuhara by 27 seconds. AGU head coach Susumu Hara had put two of his best runners on the next two stages in an evident plan to cover any scenario in which Komazawa wa...

Favorites Komazawa University ran according to plan with a course record on Day One of the 100th Hakone Ekiden, but Aoyama Gakuin University beat them to the punch with an upset win that saw them beat four of Komazawa's best. Stephen Lemayan (Surugadai Univ.) set the tone in his Hakone Ekiden with a fast start on the 21.3 km First Stage, going through 5 km in 13:59 with only Komazawa's Kotaro Shinohara , AGU's Tomoki Aramaki and Koku Gakuin University 's Kenzo Ijichi in touch. Aramaki and Ijichi quickly dropped off, and heading onto the bridge 3 km from the first exchange Shinohara, the fastest-ever Japanese-born half marathoner, picked up the pace to put Komazawa ahead by 23 seconds with the 2nd-fastest time ever on the opening stage, 1:01:02, 1:00:27 half marathon pace. Aramaki faded, dropping to 9th after being caught by the front end of the chase pack. Mebuki Suzuki handled the 23.1 km Second Stage for Komazawa and ran up to potential with a solo 1:06:20, 1:00...

In the first major race of 2024, Toyota took the lead on the 2nd leg to hold off two-time winner Honda for its first New Year Ekiden national title since 2016. The 12.3 First Stage had a 7-way sprint finish, with Naoki Ota (Yakult) taking the top spot over Hazuma Hattori (NTT Nishi Nihon) in 34:42 and 35-year-old Minato Oishi (Toyota) 4 seconds back in his final New Year Ekiden before retiring. On the new 21.9 km Second Stage, Ota's older brother Tomoki Ota (Toyota) immediately went to the front, initially with company from 2:06 marathoner Yohei Ikeda (Kao) and Ken Nakayama (Honda) but soon on his own. Ota, 2nd at last month's NR-breaking 10000 m National Championships, took advantage of a tailwind to win the stage in 1:01:40, a 59:25 half marathon equivalent, and hand off to new teammate Ren Tazawa . Tazawa, 4th at the 10000 m National Championships, split 27:35 en route on the 15.4 km Third Stage, and after Felix Korir held the lead on the new 7.8 km Fourth Leg it w...

  Happy new year. Unedited camera car feeds of the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships will start at 9:00 a.m. on Jan. 1 Japan time. TVer has streaming of the official broadcast starting at 8:30. You'll probably need a VPN for both.