Japan wins the men's Marathon team gold at the 2003 Paris World Championships (© Getty Images)
The 49th annual Japanese Corporate team Ekiden Championships (for men), also known as the New Year Ekiden, will be held on 1 January 2005 in Maebashi, site of the 1999 World Indoor Championships. Most of the best male distance runners in Japan will be taking part in this seven-stage 100km Ekiden.
Best Japanese Marathon runners on show
Toshinari Takaoka, a quadruple national record holder, who finished seventh at 10,000m at the Sydney Olympics, will run for the Kanebo team. Shigeru Aburaya, who was fifth in the Athens Olympics, and the Paris and Edmonton World Championship marathons, will run for Chugoku Electric Power. Toshinari Suwa, who was sixth at the marathon in Athens, will run for Nissin Foods. Takayuki Matsumiya, World record holder at 30km, will run for Konica-Minolta. Ryuji Ohno, bronze medallist at 10,000m in the World Junior Championships, will run for Asahi Kasei.
Defending champions are favourites to defend title
Defending champions Chugoku Electric Power, who also finished third, second and third from 2001 to 2003 respectively, are the favoured squad.
The strength of Chugoku Electric Power is in their three world class marathon runners – Shigeru Aburaya, Atsushi Sato and Tsuyoshi Ogata. Together they contributed to the marathon team gold at the 2003 World Championships in Paris. Last August, Aburaya was fifth at the Olympic Marathon in Athens. Earlier this month, Ogata, who was 12th in Paris 2003, won the Fukuoka International Marathon. Sato, who was 10th in Paris, was 8th in the 2002 World Half Marathon championships. Yasushi Sakaguchi, coach of Chugoku Electric Power, remarked, “You can see an aura around Sato. He is ready to run a 2:06 marathon.”
Konica-Minolta, who won three times from 2001 to 2003 before finishing second last year, is considered to be the main challenger. If Konica-Minolta was at its full-strength they would be a strong contender for the top place on the podium. However, their big gun, Tomoo Tsubota, who has recorded the stage best in the last three years, has been very slow in coming back from injury.
Other main contenders include Honda, Nissin Foods and Asahi Kasei. Nissin Foods finished third, second and third in the last three years but their leading runner Kazuyoshi Tokumoto is suffering from a knee injury. Thus their hope depends on Olympian Toshinari Suwa to run extremely well. Honda, who moved up from eighth in 2003 to sixth in 2004 at the nationals, was second in their district Ekiden championships. Asahi Kasei, 21-time national Ekiden champion, has been struggling in recent years. However, after finishing distant 10th in 2002, the team are slowly making a comeback, having finished 8th in 2003 and 4th in 2004.
District Ekiden selection
Chugoku Electric Power completely dominated their district Ekiden championships which led to their qualification to the national stage. After trailing by two seconds at the end of stage one, they took over the lead in the second stage. Then in stage three, Atsushi Sato improved the previous stage record by one minute to run away from the competition. At the end, Chugoku Electric Power won by seven minutes and ten seconds over JFE.
After trailing by 33 seconds at the end of stage one and 27 seconds after stage two in the East Japan Corporate team Ekiden Championships, the defending district Ekiden champion Konica-Minolta took over the lead in the third stage. At the end Konica-Minolta won by a minute and eight second over the second placed Honda.
In the third stage of the Chubu district Ekiden Championships, Martin Mathathi of Suzuki Motors recorded a huge (43 seconds) improvement on the stage best to put his team in the lead. At the end, Suzuki finished 52 seconds ahead of Toyota Textile Industry.
Results of district Ekiden championships
East JPN Corporate team Ekiden Championships - Nov 14
Seven stages - 80Km
1) Konica-Minolta 3:51:25
2) Honda 3:52:33
3) Fujitsu 3:53:40
4) Nissin Foods 3:54:19
5) Fuji Heavy Industry 3:55:22
Best Stages
1 10.0Km 28:09 Julius Gitahi (Nissin)
2 7.4Km 21:04 Naoki Mishiro (Fujitsu)
3 12.6Km 35:58 Masakazu Fujiwara (Honda)
4 17.4Km 49:33 Philip Mosima (Hitachi) New Stage Record
5 10.0Km 29:03 Yoji Yamaguchi (Honda)
6 12.6Km 36:34 Takashi Horiguchi (Honda)
7 10.0Km 29:14 Kenji Kubo (Nissan)
Chubu district Corporate team Ekiden Championships – Nov 14
Seven stages - 83Km
1) Suzuki 4:03:46
2) Toyota textile 4:04:38
3) Toyota 4:06:59
4) Honda Hamamatsu 4:08:34
5) Yachiyo Industry 4:08:57
Best Stages
1 10.4Km 30:40 Yuta Kobayashi (Toyota Textile)
2 7.2Km 22:14 Shin-ichiro Okuda (Toyota)
3 15.5Km 42:55 Martin Mathathi (Suzuki) New Stage Record
4 13.9Km 40:30 Julius Maina (Toyota Textile) New Stage Record
5 14Km 41:02 Francis Mwahia (Aisan)
6 11.6Km 32:59 Takashi Maeda (Toyota Textile)
7 10.4Km 29:59 Tomoya Shirayanagi (Toyota Textile)
Kasai district Corporate team Ekiden Championships - Nov 14
Seven stages – 80.45Km
1) Sanyo Steel 3:58:36
2) Otsuka Pharmaceutical 3:59:13
3) Sagawa Express 4:00:01
4) Osaka Police 4:00:48
5) Shikoku Electric Power 4:02:24
Best Stages
1 12.6Km 38:34 Osamu Ibata (Otsuka)
2 7.68Km 23:04 Mitsuho Morikawa (Sagawa) New Stage Record
3 10.87Km 30:16 Terukazu Omori (Kuroshio) New Stage Record
4 9.5Km 27:31 Masato Ando (Sanyo)
5 16Km 46:56 Kazuo Ietani (Sanyo) New Stage Record
6 11Km 33:07 Noriyuki Mizuguchi (Otsuka)
7 12.8Km 37:00 Michinori Takano (Sanyo) New Stage Record
Chugoku district Corporate team Ekiden Championships – Nov 21
Seven stages – 82.8Km
1) Chugoku Electric Power 4:04:24
2) JFE 4:11:34
3) Kanebo 4:12:37
4) Chudenko 4:14:46
5) Mazda 4:16:42
Best Stages
1 12Km 36:25 Yuki Nakamura (Kanebo)
2 8.2Km 24:08 Tatsumi Morimasa (Chugoku)
3 12.7Km 36:05 Atsushi Sato (Chugoku) New Stage Record
4 8.5Km 24:04 Hideaki Shigenari (Chugoku) New Stage Record
5 10Km 30:53 Tomonori Michikata (JFE)
6 17.9Km 52:59 Tsuyoshi Ogata (Chugoku)
7 13.5Km 39:16 Kurao Ogata (Chugoku) New Stage Record
Kyushu district Corporate team Ekiden Championships – Nov 23
1) Asahi Kasei 3:53:56
2) Yasukawa Electric 3:54:13
3) Kyudenko 3:56:10
4) Toyota Kyushu 3:57:41
5) Komatsu Electronics 3:59:34
Best Stages
1 13.4Km 38:49 Abdullah Bay (Yasukawa)
2 10.2Km 31:30 Makoto Tobimatsu (Yasukawa)
3 11.1Km 30:51 Kazuhiro Maeda (Kyudenko)
4 12.5Km 35:01 Davis Kabiru (Kyudenko)
5 11.5Km 33:16 Masayuki Obata (Yasukawa)
6 6.8Km 19:11 Yu Mitsuya (Toyota)
7 14.2Km 41:06 Tadayuki Ojima (Asahi Kasei) New Stage Record
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
