Skip to main content

Nagano Set For National Interprefectural Ekiden Title Defense

http://www.jiji.com/jc/zc?k=200901/2009011500556&rel=j&g=spo
http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2009011700250

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The 14th annual National Interprefectural Men's Ekiden takes place Jan. 18, covering a 7-stage, 48-km course starting and finishing at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. This year's race looks set to be a battle between defending champion Nagano Prefecture and 2007 winner Hyogo Prefecture.

Last year Nagano took its fourth national title in five years; this year the team is even stronger thanks to the addition of the heart of Nagano's Saku Chosei High School team, the 2008 National High School Boys' Ekiden champion. Saku Chosei's Akinobu Murasawa, Sugeru Osako, Shota Hiraga and Kenta Chiba will all run for Nagano, along with Hakone Ekiden greats Yuki Sato (Tokai Univ.), Kodai Matsumoto (Meiji Univ.) and Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B), all three of whom are Saku Chosei alumni. Barring an accident a repeat win for Nagano looks all but inevitable.

Nagano's strongest challenger may be Hyogo Prefecture, ranked #1 among the 47 prefectural teams based on aggregate time and the last team to beat Nagano. Much will depend upon Hyogo's contingent from the powerhouses Nishiwaki Kogyo High School and Suma Gakuen High School, but the return of Hakone star Masato Kihara (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) on the 3rd stage and of anchor Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin Shokuhin), now a nationally-ranked professional, will make the race extremely interesting to say the least.

Fukushima may well be the most anticipated of the 47 teams, as Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.), who became a national star after running a spectacular new stage record on the 5th leg of this year's Hakone Ekiden, will run the 3rd stage for the team. Beijing Olympics marathoner Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) will likewise return to anchor his 'hometown' Fukushima team. Hurting Fukushima's chances is the decision of Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu), whose 'unbreakable' Hakone Ekiden 5th stage record Kashiwabara took down this year, to run for his current base of Fukuoka rather than returning home to join Kashiwabara and Sato. Sato's fellow Beijing Olympian Takayuki Matsumiya will run for his native Akita Prefecture.

Other strong teams looking for their first wins include hosts Hiroshima, along with Saitama, Yamaguchi, Aichi, Kagoshima and Fukuoka.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that  Sis

Saturday at Kanaguri and Nittai

Two big meets happened Saturday, one in Kumamoto and the other in Yokohama. At Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Meet , Benard Koech (Kyudenko) turned in the performance of the day with a 13:13.52 meet record to win the men's 5000 m A-heat by just 0.11 seconds over Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH). The top four were all under 13:20, with 10000 m national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) bouncing back from a DNF at last month's The TEN to take the top Japanese spot at 7th overall in 13:24.57. The B-heat was also decently quick, Shadrack Rono (Subaru) winning in 13:21.55 and Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) running a 10-second PB to get under 13:30 for the first time in 13:29.29 for 6th. Paris Olympics marathoner Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) was 9th in 13:30.62. South Sudan's Abraham Guem (Ami AC) also set a meet record in the men's 1500 m A-heat in 3:38.94. 3000 mSC national record holder Ryuji Miura made his debut with the Subaru corporate team, running 3:39.78 for 2n

93-Year-Old Masters Track and Field WR Holder Hiroo Tanaka: "Everyone has Unexplored Intrinsic Abilities"

  In the midst of a lot of talk about how to keep the aging population young, there are people with long lives who are showing extraordinary physical abilities. One of them is Hiroo Tanaka , 93, a multiple world champion in masters track and field. Tanaka began running when he was 60, before which he'd never competed in his adult life. "He's so fast he's world-class." "His running form is so beautiful. It's like he's flying." Tanaka trains at an indoor track in Aomori five days a week. Asked about him, that's the kind of thing the people there say. Tanaka holds multiple masters track and field world records, where age is divided into five-year groups. Last year at the World Masters Track and Field Championships in Poland he set a new world record of 38.79 for 200 m in the M90 class (men's 90-94 age group). People around the world were amazed at the time, which was almost unbelievable for a 92-year-old. After retiring from his job as an el