Takayuki Matsumiya (JPN) (© Nakamura)
With the strength of their high school runners, the defending champion Nagano prefecture, won the 14th edition of the Inter-Prefectural Men’s Ekiden, a 48Km seven stage ekiden held in Hiroshima, Japan on Sunday 18 January. It was their fifth victory, and with the winning time of 2:18:43, Nagano broke the six years old course record of 2:19:06.
In the early stages of the race, Nagano was always close to the leader. After stage one, Nagano was in third place one second behind the leader. They took the lead at the end of second stage. Although Nagano dropped to fourth after the third stage, they almost went back into the lead at the end of fourth stage. Then, with the stage record run, 23:55 for 8.5Km, by Akinobu Murasawa, a 13:50 5000m runner, Nagano prefecture broke the race open in the fifth stage. At the end of the fifth stage, Nagano was 72 seconds ahead of the second place team. Although Nagano was expected to give away some of their lead, because the teams behind Nagano had faster runners in the final two stages, Nagano runners rise to an occasion. Nagano extended their lead to 78 seconds after stage six, and then won by 80 seconds.
Some of the best runners in Japan took part in this annual ekiden. For example, Yu Mitsuya, who ran the 10,000m in the 2007 World Championships, was fastest, 23:49 for 8.5Km, in stage 3, while the Olympian and the World 30Km record holder Takayuki Matsumiya was the second fastest, 37:56, in the 13Km seventh and the final stage. Shigeru Aburaya, fifth in the 2004 Olympics as well as 2001 and 2003 World Championships, ran the third stage, while Atsushi Sato, who ran the marathon in the 2008 Olympics, ran the seventh stage.
Ryuji Kashiwabara, who passed eleven runners in the stage three, received the biggest cheer from the fans who had lined up along the course, for he became a national celebrity after he set the new stage record as a college freshman in the famed Hakone Ekiden, by far the most popular ekiden in Japan, although it is merely a district ekiden championships for the Kanto district colleges. Kashiwabara, who recorded the stage best at stage one of the Inter-Prefectural Ekiden last year as a high school senior, was second fastest, seven seconds behind Mitsuya in the 8.5Km third stage this year.
How the race unfolded...
Stage 1 7Km, reserved for high school students
The race started with a mediocre pace; first Km was covered in 2:56, half way in 10:14. With 2km to go in the stage one, Tekeru Sakuma of Fukushima prefecture picked up the pace. With 250m to go, the lead pack was reduced to three runners – Nagano, Saitama and Chiba – from which Shota Hattori of Saitama sprinted into the lead. Hattori was the fastest in the stage with 20:10, followed by Yuki Maeda of Miyazaki who came from behind in the final metres.
Stage 2 3Km, reserved for junior high school students
Shun Morozumi of Nagano, who started the stage in third place caught Takaaki Fujioka of Saitama prefecture 300m into the stage 2. Morozumi then started to push the pace. With 350m to go, Ken Yokote of Tochigi prefecture started his sprint, but Morozumi passed him in the last few meters and Nagano prefecture was the leader after 10Km into the ekiden.
Stage 3 8.5Km
Tsuyoshi Ugachi of Tochigi prefecture and Yuki Sato of Nagano prefecture took turn pushing the pace in the early part of the race. Behind them Yu Mitsuya of Fukuoka prefecture was moving up from eighth place. He moved up to third 3.7Km into the stage. Then just before half way into the stage Mitsuya bolted into the lead. He continued to extend the lead for the next three Km and gave Fukuoka prefecture commanding lead after the stage 3. Ryuji Kashiwabara, a hero of recent Hakone ekiden ran brilliantly. He started the stage in 17th place and moved up to sixth place at the end of the stage.
Stage 4 5Km, reserved for high school students
Shota Hiraga of Nagano caught the leader Yutaro Matsuyama of Fukuoka prefecture with 600m to go. He momentarily took the lead, but Matsuyama fought back and was in the lead by one second at the end of stage four.
Stage 5 8.5Km, reserved for high school students
Akinobu Murasawa of Nagano, the fastest (13:50.86 for 5000m) high school runner in the field, took the lead immediately. Ko Takagi of Fukuoka prefecture was running second followed by the pack of seven runners. By half way into the stage, the gap between the first and second place had grown to 40 seconds. Soon after the half-way Takagi in second place was caught from behind. Out of the chase pack, Fuminori Shikata of Hyogo broke away and moved into second place. Murasawa broke the stage record with 23:55 and gave Nagano prefecture commanding lead of 72 seconds over Hyogo. “My plan was to run each Km around 2:50, but at the end it was ten seconds better than my planned time,” said Murasawa after recording the stage record.
Stage 6 3Km, reserved for junior high school students
Nagano kept its commanding lead, while Saitama caught Hyogo in second place with 400m to go. At the end of the stage Nagano extended their lead to 78 seconds.
Stage 7 13Km
Yuichiro Ueno of Nagano ran completely alone in front. He passed 5Km in 14:19. At 5.2Km check point, Ueno led Satoru Kitamura of Hyogo and Satoru Sasaki of Miyazaki by 90 seconds. Ueno passed 10Km in 29:01, although he was visibly in trouble in the closing stage of the race, he still finished 80 seconds ahead of Kitamura, who moved away from Sasaki after 10Km into the final stage.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Results:
Nagano 2:18:43
Hyogo 2:20:03
Miyazaki 2:20:07
Fukuoka 2:20:15
Fukushima 2:20:42
Tochigi 2:20:46
Saitama 2:20:52
Chiba 2:21:14
Oita 2:21:18
Miyagi 2:21:22
After stage 1
Saitama 20:10
Miyazaki 20:11
Nagano 20:11
After stage 2
Nagano 28:46
Tochigi 28:46
Saitama 28:48
After stage 3
Fukuoka 52:54
Miyazaki 53:09
Tochigi 53:10
Nagano 53:11
After stage 4
Fukuoka 1:07:38
Nagano 1:07:39
Fukushima 1:07:50
After stage 5
Nagano 1:31:34
Hyogo 1:32:46
Saitama 1:32:49
After stage 6
Nagano 1:40:37
Saitama 1:41:55
Hyogo 1:41:56
Best stages
1 (7km)
20:10 Shota Hattori Saitama
20:11 Yuki Maeda Miyazaki
20:11 Kenta Chiba Nagano
2 (3km)
8:30 Yuta Katsumata Shizuoka
8:32 Ken Yokote Tochigi
3 (8.5Km)
23:49 Yu Mitsuya Fukuoka
23:56 Ryuji Kashiwabara Fukushima
4 (5Km)
14:28 Shota Hiraga Nagano
14:30 Daichi Motomura Kumamoto
5 (8.5Km)
23:55 Akinobu Murasawa Nagano
24:38 Fuminori Shikata Hyogo
6 (3Km)
8:51 Hideyuki Ikegami Kyoto
8:56 Ryo Yamada Fukuoka
7 (13Km)
37:55 Naoki Okamoto Hiroshima
37:56 Takayuki Matsumiya Akita
Other Ekiden action in Japan
The inter-prefectural men’s ekdien was not the only ekiden action in Japan over the weekend. Toyota Industries won the 20th Women’s Kita-Kyushu Ekiden, 5 stage 32.8Km ekiden. Yuriko Kobayashi, a medalist at both the World Youth and World Junior Championships, took the lead 1Km into the first stage, and Toyota Industries never looked back. The defending champion won the Kita-Kyushu Ekiden by nearly two minutes over Tenmaya, anchored by Yurika Nakamura, who was 13th at the Beijing Olympic marathon.
Toyota Industries 1:43:56
Tenmaya 1:45:45
18 Bank 1:46:03
Wacoal 1:47:40
Kyudenko 1:48:05
Stage Best
1 4.2Km 12:59 Yuriko Kobayashi Toyota
2 5.9Km 18:46 Risa Shigetomo Tenmaya
3 5.1Km 16:19 Hiroko Miyauchi OKI
4 5.9Km Kaori Urata 18 Bank
5 11.7Km 35:56 Hitomi Niiya Toyota
