The last big women's race of championship ekiden season, the Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden saw 8 corporate teams square off against 19 of the top high school teams in the country over a 27.2 km race. For corporate leaguers that was divided into 5 legs, with the final leg, 10.4 km, split into two legs for the high school teams. Kairi Ikeno put National High School Ekiden 8th-placer Suma Gakuen H.S. out front on the 5.3 km First Stage, missing the CR by 2 seconds in 16:51. Only 17th at the Queens Ekiden corporate national championships, Kyocera was 5 seconds out front by the end of the 3.8 km Second Stage, but that didn't last long when Yume Yabutani ran a 12:35 CR on the 3.9 km Third Stage to put National High School Ekiden runner-up Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. in the overall lead by 23 seconds. That lead stayed exactly the same over the 3.8 km Fourth Stage, while from behind Denso , which had failed to qualify for the Queens Ekiden, closed to 15 seconds b...
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