Skip to main content

Toyokawa Girls Win Record-Setting Fourth Title at 25th National High School Girls Ekiden

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20131222-00000075-spnannex-spo

translated and edited by Brett Larner
click photo for video highlights courtesy of NHK


The 25th edition of the National High School Girls Ekiden Championships took place Dec. 22 in Kyoto.  In honor of the event's anniversary, eleven extra teams were added to the forty-seven champion high schools from each of Japan's prefectures to bring the field up to fifty-eight schools competing over five stages totalling 21.0975 km.

After missing out on defending its 2011 win last year, Toyokawa H.S. of Aichi returned to the top this year with its fourth national title, the most in Nationals history.  2010 national champion Kojokan H.S. (Okayama) took 2nd, battling Suma Gakuen H.S. (Hyogo) all the way to the final Fifth Stage before pulling ahead for the runner-up position.  Defending champion Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. (Kyoto) was 4th.

Winner Toyokawa's time of 1:06:54 tied the second-fastest mark ever at the National Championships, the first sub-1:07 clocking in eight years and blowing out the rest of the field by nearly a minute.  With its 2nd place finish Kojokan continued a ten-year streak of making it to the podium.

25th National High School Girls Ekiden Championships
Kyoto, Dec. 22, 2013
58 teams, 5 stages, 21.0975 km
click here for complete results

Top Team Performances
1. Toyokawa H.S. (Aichi) - 1:06:54
2. Kojokan H.S. (Okayama) - 1:07:51
3. Suma Gakuen H.S. (Hyogo) - 1:07:53
4. Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. (Kyoto) - 1:07:55
5. Aomori Yamada H.S. (Aomori) - 1:08:11
6. Yamanashi Gakuin Prep H.S (Yamanashi) - 1:08:21
7. Tokiwa H.S, (Gunma) - 1:08:33
8. Osaka Kunei Joshi H.S. (Osaka) - 1:08:33
9. Eda H.S. (Kanagawa) - 1:08:40
10. Nagano Higashi H.S.) - 1:09:09

Stage Best Performances
First Stage (6.0 km) - Saki Yoshimizu (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 19:28
Second Stage (4.0975 km) - Yui Fukuda (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 12:44
Third Stage (3.0 km) - Nanako Kajiya (Toyokawa H.S.) - 9:33
Fourth Stage (3.0 km) - Harumi Okamoto (Tokiwa H.S.) - 9:10
Fifth Stage (5.0 km) - Rosemary Wanjiru (Kenya/Aomori Yamada H.S.) - 15:29

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr