japan running news

For the 7th edition in a row, the Takigahara SDF Base team dominated the 48th Mt. Fuji Ekiden , a 11-stage, 48.19 km race up Mount Fuji and back down, with 3258 m elevation gain on the way up, 3199 m loss on the way down, every runner having to handle both an uphill and downhill leg, and the top men averaging 10:39/km on the steepest climb and as fast as 2:10/km on the steepest of the descent. Takigahara faced challenges early on from last year's 8th-place Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment team and, in its debut, the pro Eldoreso team featuring 100 km NR holder Jumpei Yamaguchi . The anchor stage winner last year, Moriyama's Toshihiro Hayashi pulled off a rare double stage win this time, leading on the 6.54 km, 243 m uphill First Stage and winning the 4.88 km, 184 m downhill Eleventh Stage. Eldoreso's Takumi Kato duplicated that feat, winning the 4.64 km, 345 m uphill Second Stage and passing Moriyama to move into the overall lead, then winning the 4.64 km, 345 m downhi...

Along with Akita's Towada Hachimantai Ekiden another midsummer classic returned Sunday after cancelations in 2020 and 2021, the 47th edition of the  Mt. Fuji Ekiden . An eleven-stage race featuring 82 teams of six, the Mt. Fuji Ekiden sees the first five runners on each team work their way up the slopes of Mt. Fuji, first on roads and then on trails. The sixth runners climbs the final few kilometers to the summit 3258 m above the race's starting point, has his tasuki sash stamped by a priest at the shrine waiting there, then begins the descent. The first five runners then have to each a second time, downhill this time. Some of the downhill stages are wild, with powdery gravel covering steep slopes, and scenes like this one from 2014 at the exchange from the Seventh to Eighth Stage, are legendary. Spectators make the climb to the exchange zones just to see it happen. Doesn't it look like fun? The video up top is from the last edition in 2019 , when the Takigahara SDF Base ...