Skip to main content

Tokyo Repeats in East Japan Women's Ekiden

by Brett Larner

The team representing Tokyo won its 2nd straight victory at the East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima Prefecture on Nov. 9, outlasting a surprise challenge from the Niigata Prefectural team to take the 2008 title. The East Japan Women's Ekiden features a 9-stage, 42.195 km course and teams made up of star professional, university, high school and junior high school runners from the 18 prefectures in eastern Japan and is one of a series of regional precursors to January's All-Japan Interprefectural Women's Ekiden.

Tokyo won comfortably last year but this year was threatened over the entire course by the Niigata team, which had never placed higher than 8th in the event's 23 previous runnings. Niigata's Chiaki Takagi wore down Tokyo's Rie Takayoshi to win the 6 km 1st stage, breaking away at 4 km. Takagi finished the stage in 19:08 to Takayoshi's 19:11.

Tokyo's Chisa Nishio overtook Niigata's Moeno Nakamura with 1 km to go on the 4 km 2nd stage, Nakamura also falling prey to Saitama's Natsuko Goto who continued her impressive season after a brilliant run with Nihon University at last month's Morinomiyako Ekiden. Nishio led Goto by 17 seconds at the end of the stage, with Nakamura another 10 seconds back.

Niigata runner Kanako Fujiishi quickly overtook Saitama's Chisako Aikawa on the 3 km 3rd stage, but Tokyo's Chiemi Tachimori maintained her team's 17 second lead. It looked like the race might have already resolved into a repeat of last year's edition, but on the 3 km 4th stage Niigata's junior high school student Miwa Yokoyama ran far beyond her years, catching Tokyo's Ayaka Takahashi just past the 1 km point. She showed impressive form and potential as she opened Niigata a 29 second lead over Tokyo.

Tomoko Watanabe ran strongly on the 5.0875 km 5th stage but was no match for Tokyo's Azusa Nojiri who was truly incredible in catching Watanabe just after the 2 km mark. The 26 year-old Nojiri, who runs for the Daiichi Seimei jitsugyodan team, has had a highly unusual career parth, only beginning to run professionally in August of this year. Prior to that she was an international-level cross-country skier who had competed on the Japanese national team at the World Cup. Her muscular, aggressive style was in another class from the other women on her stage as she singlehandedly gave Tokyo a 26 second lead.

Tokyo's Yukari Abe widened her lead to 33 seconds over the 4.1075 km 6th stage while Niigata's Ami Watanabe was about 30 seconds ahead of 3rd place contenders Kanagawa and Chiba. Michiru Otsuki did her part for the Tokyo team, adding another 9 seconds to its lead over the 4 km 7th stage, but on the 3 km 8th stage Tokyo runner Karin Fujimoto was outdone by Niigata's star Megumi Minoguchi. Minoguchi made up the 42 second margin with room to spare, flying by Fujimoto with 240 m to go, setting a new stage record of 9:09 and setting up a battle on the 10 km anchor stage by giving Niigata a 7 second lead over Tokyo.

Niigata's Manami Murayama ran gamely but was no match for Tokyo's anchor Yoshiko Fujinaga. Fujinaga overtook Murayama after only 800 m and never looked back, bringing Tokyo in to win in 2:19:15. Murayama was overtaken by Chiba's Yukie Nagata and Kanagawa`s Kasumi Oyagi just before the entrance to the stadium finish, settling for 4th, its lowest position of the day but still ahead of the team's target of a 6th place finish. Nagata, running her first-ever 10 km, outkicked Oyagi to give Chiba a 2nd place finish with Kanagawa, last year's runner-up, close behind in 3rd.

2008 East Japan Women's Ekiden
Stage Best Performances
1st stage - 6 km: Chiaki Takagi (Niigata) - 19:08
2nd stage - 4 km: Chisa Nishio (Tokyo) - 12:53
3rd stage - 3 km: Kanako Fujiishi (Niigata) - 9:53
4th stage - 3 km: tie - Miwa Yokoyama (Niigata) and Tomoka Haneda (Tochigi) - 9:25
5th stage - 5.0875 km: Aya Nagata (Chiba) - 16:19
6th stage - 4.1075 km: Emi Kameyama (Nagano) - 13:13
7th stage - 4 km: Michiru Otsuki (Tokyo) - 13:14
8th stage - 3 km: Megumi Minoguchi (Niigata) - 9:09 - new stage record
9th stage - 10 km: Haruka Obara (Iwate) - 32:28

Team Results
1. Tokyo - 2:19:15
2. Chiba - 2:20:05
3. Kanagawa - 2:20:12
4. Niigata - 2:20:16
5. Miyagi - 2:20:48
6. Fukushima - 2:21:05
7. Saitama - 2:21:10
8. Gunma - 2:21:10
9. Yamanashi - 2:21:43
10. Nagano - 2:22:04
11. Tochigi - 2:22:10
12. Hokkaido - 2:22:29
13. Akita - 2:22:36
14. Ibaraki - 2:23:05
15. Yamagata - 2:24:08
16. Iwate - 2:25:05
17. Aomori - 2:26:21
18. Shizuoka - 2:26:44

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr