japan running news

Damn, has it already been a week? Time goes by so fast. Times at the Hakone Ekiden this year were fast too. Eight guys broke course records on four of the five stages on Day One , and another five broke the records on three of the five stages on Day Two . Two of the three stages that didn't have new records were just seconds off. Four teams broke the Day One course record, two broke the overall course record, and one broke the Day Two record. This all mirrored what happened a day earlier at the New Year Ekiden , where eight men broke the records on four of the seven stages, at least one other missed by seconds, the top two teams broke the official overall course record and two more broke the record for the actual current version of the course. And not just records. Some of them were historic, epoch-making marks. None more so than Tokyo Kokusai University 's Vincent Yegon , who busted the greatest performance in Hakone history, a 59:25 course record for the 21.4 km Thi...

Day Two results 2020 is the 100th anniversary of Japan's biggest sports event, the Hakone Ekiden . Originally conceived of in large part by Japan's first Olympic marathoner Shiso Kanakuri as a way to develop Olympic marathon talent, this year's Hakone comes at the very start of the year the Olympics return to Tokyo. It also comes at the end of a season that saw four former Hakone stage winners take the top four spots at the 2020 Olympic marathon trials, validating Kanakuri's vision a century removed. But he could never have imagined the kind of race the kids would deliver. Right from the gun the tone was set, with three-time First Stage winner Kazuya Nishiyama of last year's Day One winner Toyo University taking it out right on course record pace and the entire field going with it. The sheer aggression of the tone never changed over the entire five-stage, 107.5 km day, both big names and unknowns hitting it hard every stage. Minor school runner Rei Yonemit...