The 33rd National Junior High School Ekiden took place in Shiga's Kibogaoka Bunka Park, with boys running 18 km in 6 legs and girls 12 km in 5 legs. Making Nationals for the first time, Gunma's Kise J.H.S. won the boys's race, while Okayama's Kyoyama J.H.S. became only the 3rd school in event history to pull off a threepeat. Ryunosuke Ideta (Chukyo J.H.S.), winner of the boys' 3000 m at last summer's Okinawa National Junior High School Track and Field Championships, and girls' 1500 m champ Aika Koreeda (Utsube J.H.S.) both raced, the first time in 17 years that the winners of both the boys' and girls' long-distance events ran at the National Junior High School Ekiden. Both ran up to potential and won their stages. Running the First Stage, Koreeda came to Nationals with a solid season since her national title on the track, winning at the National Sports Festival U16 and taking her 3000 m PB down to 9:34.44. Even with all the other schools' be...
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