time defending champions, won for the third straight time at the Inter-Prefecture Men’s Ekiden on Sunday 22 January. The 11th annual race was contested over the seven stage 48Km course in Hiroshima.
The race started under a sunny sky and at the end of the 7Km first stage, Tsuyoshi Ugachi of Tochigi prefecture, who ran in the World Cross Country Championships last year, displayed his blazing kick, and put his team in the lead. Nagano, defending champion was 10th after the stage one, but moved up to eighth after 3Km second stage. With Wataru Ueno of Fukuoka Prefecture recording the stage best in 3Km second stage, Fukuoka took over the lead in stage two. In the 8.5Km third stage, Shigeru Aburaya, who was fifth at the marathon in the Athens Olympic Games, passed 15 runners to move his team, Hiroshima, up from twenty first to sixth. In the same stage Hyogo prefecture took over the lead 1Km into the stage three, while Nagano prefecture moved into second. Hyogo continued running in the front in the fourth stage, but 3Km into the 8.5Km fifth stage Kodai Matsumoto of Nagano prefecture took over the lead from Hyogo. At the end of the fifth stage, Nagano led Hyogo by 52 seconds, an advantage they extended to 54 seconds after stage six. And finally on the 13Km seventh stage, 19-years-old Yuki Sato of Nagano prefecture, national high school 10,000m record holder and the reigning collegiate 10,000m champion, held off Michitaka Hosokawa of Hyogo prefecture, who had run in the marathon in the World Championships in Helsinki. Nagano won by 48 seconds from Hyogo.
It was third consecutive victory for Nagano, while Hyogo finished in the runner-up position for the third straight year. Said Tamio Nishizawa, a coach of Nagano prefecture: “Unlike last two years, when I was very nervous during the race, it was such a easy win for us this year.”
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Results
(7 stage 48Km): (Weather: Sunny 12.5C)
1. Nagano 2:20:23
2. Hyogo 2:21:11
3. Aichi 2:21:52
4. Tochigi 2:21:55
5. Fukuoka 2:22:08
6. Hiroshima 2:23:17
7. Kagoshima 2:23:20
8. Yamaguchi 2:23:22
Best Stages
Stage-Distance-Time-Name
1 7Km 20:31 Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Tochigi) High school
2 3Km 8:40 Wataru Ueno (Fukuoka) Junior high school
3 8.5Km 24:39 Shigeru Aburaya (Hiroshima)
4 5Km 14:23 Hiroki Takano (Nagano) High school
5 8.5Km 24:25 Kodai Matsumoto (Nagano) High school
6 3Km 8:38 Hirofumi Sasaki (Chiba) Junior high school
7 13Km 37:55 Teruihiko Nakano (Aichi)
