The victorious Hyogo squad in Hiroshima (© Ken Nakamura)
Hiroshima, JapanHyogo prefecture won the 12th annual Inter-Prefecture Men’s Ekiden, which was contested over a seven stage course that covers the distance of 48Km in Hiroshima on Sunday (21).
The winning time, 2:19:40, was the second fastest time over the 48Km course, which has been in use for the last eight years. For Hyogo, who stopped three-time defending champion Nagano prefecture from winning its fourth straight, it was their second victory in the history of the Ekiden, after a win eight years ago when it was contested over the 47Km course for the final time. The victory was a great birthday present for Hajime Nagasato, a coach of Hyogo team, who turned 47 today. The defending champion Nagano prefecture was never really in the race and finished a distant second in 2:21:13. Helped by a brilliant anchor leg by Makoto Tobimatsu, Saga finished third in 2:21:31.
How the race unfolded:
First stage: The first stage of the ekiden is no different from ordinary road races, thus usual road race tactics are employed. The race was relatively slow in the early part of the stage one. A huge pack passed 1Km in 2:56, and after the lead pack passed 5Km in 14:39, at 6Km (17:29) Takuro Nakanishi of Saitama prefecture took he initiative and picked up the tempo. Nakanishi who later said, “I was feeling very comfortable, so I decided to go for it,” surged again 500m later, which broke the race open. He covered the 7Km first stage in 20:18 and gave his team a brief period in the front. After the 7.0Km first stage Hyogo was in ninth place, nine seconds behind the leader Nakanishi, but more importantly Hyogo was just one second behind the defending champion Nagano.
Second stage: The lead changed often during the early part of the stage two. Hiroshima prefecture and Oita prefecture took turn in the lead before Aichi prefecture took over the lead at 1.7Km into the second stage. “I was careful not to run too fast in the beginning,” said Shuhei Yamamoto of Aichi who made the final move with 1Km to go in the stage which kept his team in the lead. Although Fuminori Shikata of Hyogo said, “I was not specifically looking for the fastest stage,” he did record the stage best of 8:34 for the 3Km stage. He was able to stay close to the lead, while Keigo Yano of the defending champion Nagano was 15 seconds behind at the end of the 3Km second stage.
Third stage: Covering the first Km of the third stage in 2:35, Kensure Takezawa, the fastest 5000m runner in Japan last year, took over the lead. Meanwhile, Yuichiro Ueno of Nagano was even faster and closed some of the gap on Takazawa. However, the fastest runner of all was Terukazu Omori, the stage record (23:26) holder. He covered the 8.5Km stage in 23:44. In the process he passed nine runners.
Fourth stage: After the third stage, Hyogo never relinquished their lead. They were never threatened. The fourth stage runner for Hyogo prefecture was Takuya Nakayama, a son of the two-time Olympic Marathon fourth placer Takeyuki Nakayama. As with his father, he started fast. “The first 1Km was under 2:50, I thought this is too fast, so I tried to control myself,” he said. Although he slowed in the final stage of the race, Nakayama still recorded a stage best, 14:27 for the 5Km stage. “I am very proud of being a son of a great marathon runner. Someday, I want to be faster than he ever was, but right now, he is so far ahead,” Nakayama said of his father. This was his first Ekiden at the national level for Nakayama. At the end of the fourth stage, Hyogo led Nagano by 43 seconds.
Fifth to seventh stages: Yuki Yagi, a fifth stage runner for Hyogo continued to extend the lead over Nagano. At the end of the 8.5Km fifth stage, Hyogo’s lead over Nagano was now at 1:14. Nagano could not make any dent over the Hyogo’s lead in the sixth stage and all their hope was on their big gun Yuki Sato, the fastest 10,000m runner from last season. After running in third place from the third stage to the sixth stage, less than 800m into the seventh and the final stage Nagano finally took over second place. Although Sato ran brilliantly during the early part of the stage, because Satoru Kitamura of Hyogo was also running brilliantly, Sato was closing to Kitamura. Eventually Sato decided to protect his second place instead of gambling for the win. “I was able to run relaxed because we were so far ahead thanks to all the runners who ran before me,” said Kitamura. Once Hyogo took control of the race, they were never threatened and the anticipated showdown between two of the best collegiate runners, Yuki Sato Satoru Kitamura, never materialized.
Meanwhile, Makoto Tobimatsu of Saga prefecture was the fastest runner of all. Running the fastest stage seven, Tobimatsu moved his team from 13th place and into third in the span of 13Km. Masato Imai, a hero from the Hakone Ekiden earlier in the month, was still running well. He passed 17 runners in the process to bring up his team, Fukushima prefecture, to 21st place.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Results:
Weather at start time and location: temperature 10 C, humidity 50%, Wind 0.4m/s from South West
Teams:
1. Hyogo 2:19:40
2. Nagano 2:21:13
3. Saga 2:21:31
4. Nagasaki 2:21:33
5. Kumamoto 2:21:35
6. Fukuoka 2:21:37
7. Miyagi 2:21:38
8. Gunma 2:21:43
Best Stages:
1. 7.0Km - 20:18 - Takuro Nakanishi
2. 3.0Km - 8:34 - Fuminori Shikata
3. 8.5Km - 23:44 - Terukazu Omori
4. 5.0Km - 14:27 - Takuya Nakayama
5. 8.5Km - 24:56 - Takuya Noguchi
6. 3.0Km - 8:57 - Takahiro Gunji
7. 13.0Km - 37:48 - Makoto Tobimatsu
