japan running news

November's National University Ekiden is the second stop of the three-race university men's ekiden season. Even more than the season-opening Izumo Ekiden, it's pretty much a given that however many teams there are in the field from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, where almost all the best high schoolers go for university in order to have the chance to run the Hakone Ekiden, the top team from outside Kanto will finish behind all of them. Not including two select teams that don't count in scoring, the 15 Kanto teams at last year's Nationals took the top 15 spots in the field of 25 schools. Koku Gakuin University , Komazawa University , Aoyama Gakuin University , Soka University , Waseda University , Josai University , Rikkyo University and Teikyo University filled the 8-podium to earn places at the 2025 National University Ekiden, with the other 7 having to run yesterday's Kanto Region Qualifier alongside 13 other Kanto-area teams to try to make the return trip. ...

4th overall at the 100th Hakone Ekiden on Jan. 2nd and 3rd, Toyo University has recruited a strong incoming class featuring the 2nd and 3rd-placers on the 10.0 km First Stage at December's National High School Ekiden , Kaito Matsui (Saitama Sakae H.S.) and Yu Miyazaki (Toyo Ushiku H.S.). At the National High School Ekiden, Sota Orita (Suma Gakuen H.S.) ran 28:48 to tie the fastest-ever Japanese time on the stage set in 2019 by Yachiyo Shoin H.S. athlete Issei Sato , now a member of Aoyama Gakuin University 's 2024 Hakone Ekiden champion team. Right with Orita until the very last straight, Matsui and Miyazaki ran excellent times of 28:54 and 28:57. Matsui and Miyazaki preceded that performance with a 1-2 on the 10.0 km First Stage at November's Kanto Region High School Ekiden, Matsui in 29:10 and Miyazaki in 29:16. Third on the same stage in that race, Yu Uchibori (Koma H.S.) is also Toyo-bound, a major recruiting coup for Toyo to pull in the top three. At both Gakuho...