For the second year in a row Nagano prefecture won the 10th annual Inter-Prefectural Men’s Ekiden in Hiroshima on Sunday 23 January. It was an exciting race which came down to the final metres of the seventh and the final stage. After exchanging several surges over the 13Km final stage, Yuichiro Ueno sprinted away from Satoru Kitamura to bring the second consecutive victory to Nagano prefecture.
Besides the 13Km long duel between Ueno and Kitamura, the fabulous run by the other rising stars of Japanese distance scene highlighted the day. In the first stage, high school senior Yuki Sato, national high school 10000m record (28:07.39) holder, tied the record despite the slow early pace, to put his team, Nagano, in the lead. Another high school senior, Hidekazu Sato, national high school record (13:39.87) holder at 5000m, put his team in the lead at stage five with his record run.
Turning our attention to the slightly older generation, in the third stage, twenty-five years old Terukazu Omori recorded the fastest time, 23:26, for the 8.5Km stage. In the same stage twenty years old Yu Mitsuya recorded the time (23:35) also faster than the old record, 23:52. Both runners are expected to challenge for the World Championships team at the 10,000m later this season.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Results
(7 stage 48Km ekiden)
1) Nagano 2:20:02
2) Hyogo 2:20:04
3) Miyagi 2:21:03
4) Aichi 2:21:06
5) Gunma 2:21:10
6) Yamaguchi 2:21:25
7) Osaka 2:21:32
8) Mie 2:21:48
Best stages
Stage 1 - 7Km
Reserved for high school students
1) Yuki Sato (Nagano) 19:51
Tied stage record
2) Keiji Akutsu (Gunma) 20:08
3) Tsuyoshi Ugaji (Tochigi) 20:09
Stage 2 - 3Km
Reserved for junior high school students
1) Yusuke Mita (Aichi) 8:37
2) Wataru Ueno (Fukuoka) 8:39
3) Fumiya Tanji (Nara) 8:42
Stage 3 - 8.5Km
1) Terukazu Omori (Kochi) 23:26
New stage record (old record Omori 23:52)
2) Yu Mitsuya (Kagawa) 23:35
3) Takanobu Otsubo (Osaka) 23:54
4) Takashi Maeda (Aichi) 23:58
stage 4 - 5Km
Reserved for high school students
1) Yoshiya Tsukamoto (Kumamoto) 14:27
2) Norimasa Yoshida (Fukushima) 14:31
2) Takuya Fukatsu (Gunma) 14:31
Stage 5 - 8.5Km
Reserved for high school students
1) Hidekazu Sato (Miyagi) 24:07
New stage record (old record Y Ueno 24:32)
2) Hiroyuki Ono (Gunma) 25:01
3) Kodai Matsumoro (Nagano) 25:04
Stage 6 - 3Km
Reserved for junior high school students
1) Yusuke Hosokawa (Hyogo) 8:57
2) Minami Yasunaga (Tokyo) 8:58
3) Fuminori Chiba (Miyagi) 9:00
Stage 7 - 13Km
1) Takeshi Hamano (Aichi) 37:49
2) Yuichiro Ueno (Nagano) 37:56
3) Satoru Kitamura (Hyogo) 37:58
4) Tomohiro Seto (Yamaguchi) 37:58
…
13) Shigeru Aburaya (Hiroshima) 38:28
14) Satoshi Osaki (Osaka) 38:29
15) Ryuji Ohno (Kagoshima) 38:32