Led by three marathon runners who ran in the World Championships in Paris – Atsushi Sato, Tsuyoshi Ogata and Shigeru Aburaya - Chugoku Electric Power won the ekiden championships among corporate track and field teams known as New Year Ekiden in a time of 4:47.03. 

The 48th New Year Ekiden were contested by 37 teams over the seven stage 100Km loop course which started and finished at the Gunma prefecture office in Maebashi – the site of the 1999 World Indoor Championships - on January 1st, 2004 to determine the best ekiden team in Japan. 

Historically, the best distance runners in Japan have run this prestigious ekiden.  Kokichi Tsuburaya (bronze in 1964 Olympic marathon), Kenji Kimihara (silver in 1968 Olympic marathon), Toshihiko Seko, Takeshi Soh (4th in 1984 Olympic Marathon), Koichi Morishita (silver in 1992 Olympic marathon), and Hiromi Taniguchi (1991 World Marathon Champion) all recorded the stage best at one time or another in this ekiden championships. 

In the first stage of the ekiden, the pack stayed together until 5Km, at which point Martin Mathathi of auto manufacture Suzuki surged ahead.  Mathathi, who came from Kenya to join Suzuki last year covered 7Km to 8Km in 2:42 to completely broke away from his pursuers.  Mathathi set the new stage record for the 12.3Km stage, 34:23, and was 15 seconds ahead of 2:06 marathon runner Daniel Njenga, also of Kenya who runs for Yakult.  Three-time defending champion Konica (now Konica-Minolta after two photo companies merged) was in fifth place 32 seconds behind the leader, while the co-favourite Chugoku Electric Power was another two seconds behind in eighth place after the first stage. 

In the 22Km second stage, the longest stage of the ekiden, the most team selected their big guns to run this stage and the favorites moved into the front.  While Suzuki led in the early part of the second stage, 4.5 Km into the stage, Konica-Minolta and Chugoku Electric joined the chase pack consists of Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Kuroshio Telecommunication and Yakult.  By 6.8Km the chasing pack caught up with the leader Suzuki, and by the half way into the longest stage, the race, as expected, turned into the duel between Konica-Minolta and Chugoku Electric. 

The duel lasted for nearly 5Km, but at 15.8Km into the second stage, Konica’s big gun Tomoo Tsubota, who run the 10,000m in Paris, surged away from Shigeru Aburaya and recorded the fastest stage time, 1:02:34.  However, Aburaya of Chugoku Electric Power (Utility company), who was fifth at the marathon in Paris, also ran well.  He moved his team up from eighth place to second place 17 seconds behind Konica-Minolta. Tadayuki Ojima who recorded the personal best of 2:08:48 in the Fukuoka Marathon three and half weeks ago, passed 20 runners to move his team Asahi Kasei up to 5th place. 

For the next two stages, Konica-Minolta stayed in front, while Chugoku Electric Power stayed within a striking distance.  After four stages, 56.6Km into the race, Konica-Minolta led Chugoku Electric Power by 36 seconds.  However, in the fifth stage, Atsushi Sato of Chugoku Electric Power, who was 10th at the marathon in Paris, was in hot pursuit.  Sato not only passed Yuko Matsumiya of Konica-Minolta nine kilometres into the stage, he turned a 36 seconds deficit into a minute and fifty seconds advantage for his team, Chugoku Electric Power. 
 
Chugoku Electric Power further extended their lead in the 11.8Km sixth stage when Koji Kimura recorded the fastest sixth stage time, 34:08.  In the seventh and final stage, Kurao Umeki of Chugoku Electric Power started fast covering the first 5Km in 14:14.

However, although Kazuyuki Maeda of Konica-Minolta made up ground over the next 10Km to record the fastest stage time, 45.49, seven seconds better than the quadruple national record (3000m, 5000m, 10000m and marathon) holder Toshinari Takaoka, it was little too late for the defending champions, who finished over two minutes behind the winner in second place.

At the final stage of the race Nissin Foods outkicked 21 time champion Asahi Kasei to finish third.  Asahi Kasei is back to be a contender after having finished 6th, 10th and 8th in the last three years. 

Chugoku Electric Power won the most prestigious ekiden in Japan for the first time, after finishing third, second and third in the last three years.  Yasushi Sakaguchi, a young coach of Chugoku Electric Power, was able to send three marathon runners to Paris last summer.   

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
with assistance from Akihiro Onishi 

Results: 
Seven stages total distance of 100Km
1)   Chugoku Electric Power 4:47:03
2)   Konica-Minolta  4:49:05
3)   Nissin Foods  4:50:35
4)   Asahi Kasei  4:50:42
5)   Toyota   4:51:22
6)   Honda   4:52:03
7)   Araco   4:52:16
8)   Fujitsu   4:52:41
9)   Kanebo   4:53:09
10) Otsuka Pharmaceutical 4:54:49

Best Stage Times
Stage Distance Name    Time
1 12.3Km Martin Mathathi (Suzuki) 34:23 
   Daniel Njenga (Yakult) 34:38 
2 22Km  Tomoo Tsubota (Konica) 1:02:34
3 11.8Km Julius Maina (Araco)  31:43
   Julius Gitahi (Nissin)  31:54
4 10.5Km Samuel Mutsuri (Konica) 29:39
5 15.9Km Atsushi Sato (Chugoku) 45:50
   Kazuyoshi Tokumoto (Nissin) 47:21
6 11.8Km Koji Kimura (Chugoku) 34:08
7 15.7Km Kazuyuki Maeda  (Konica) 45:49
   Toshinari Takaoka  45:56