Aichi wins the sixth annual Men’s
Inter-Prefecture Ekiden in Hiroshima
K. Ken Nakamura for IAAF
The men’s version of an Inter-Prefecture ekiden was contested on January 21 in Hiroshima, over seven stage 48Km course. As with the women’s version, teams in this ekiden also consist of runners of different age groups, which give younger runners in junior and senior high school the opportunity to mingle with and learn from older runners in corporate track
teams. However, learning process is mutual. As Yuko Kawakami, a national 10000m record holder, said after the last week’s women’s Inter-Prefecture ekiden, she also learned from younger teammates especially Yukari Soh, the sixteen year old daughter of 2:08 marathon runner Takeshi Soh. Because of her status as a runner, lately, Kawakami was always under huge pressure to perform. But younger runners reminded her of the true reason why she runs ekiden - a sense of accomplishment as a team. She concluded, "I have really enjoyed running ekiden race today."
Because runners of different age groups participate in this ekiden, some stages are reserved exclusively for a certain age group. The stages two and six are reserved for junior high school runners, while stages one, four and five are reserved for high school students. Because the distance reserved for junior and senior high school accounts for 26.5Km out of 48Km, it will not be possible to win without good student runners.
However, the 21.5km expected to be covered by corporate track team members are quite important also. Here, some prefectures without any corporate team are at distinct disadvantage. To balance the strength of each team, the rule allows runners to run for their native prefecture where they attended high school. Thus Katsuhiko Hanada, an Olympic 10000m runner, who now lives in Tokyo ran the anchor stage for his native Shiga prefecture. He lifted his team from 43rd to 35th, when he recorded third fastest seventh stage in 37:55.
The race started from the Peace memorial park in near ideal conditions under a cloudy sky with temperature of 9.5C and very little wind. In the first stage, Miyazaki, Nagano and Aichi broke away from the lead pack, and they were the top three teams after the first stage. In the second stage, Hirotaka Honda set a new stage record. In the process Yamaguchi prefecture took over the lead. He was followed closely by runners from Aichi and Nagano. Then in the 8.5Km third stage, the race turned into a duel between Takashi Maeda of Aichi and Hideyuki Obinata of Nagano. With 500m to go Maeda who was confident about his speed started his finishing kick and opened the six seconds gap by the end of the third stage. From then on, Aichi steadily increased the lead, 28 seconds after stage four, 36 seconds after stage five, and 41 seconds after stage six.
It looked as if Aichi was well on their way to a victory. However, as had happened twice in its six-year history, a dramatic ending awaited the seventh and final stage. In the inaugural race in 1996, Tomoaki Kunichika made up a minute and 10 seconds deficit to bring the victory to his hometown of Hiroshima. This dramatic ran made Kunichika a local hero and he became one of the most recognized names/faces in Hiroshima. In 1997, it was Toshinari Takaoka of Kyoto (although he lives in Yamaguchi, Takaoka attended both high school and University in his native Kyoto) who came from behind and not only made up the 36 second deficit, but turned it into a 35 second advantage. However, no such dramatic ending was in the scenario this year. By 5Km, Satoshi Watanabe, the anchor for Aichi was convinced of the team’s victory, as he did not feel any threat from the runners behind him. At the end Aichi won by 53 seconds. Hygo prefecture who were 12th at the end of stage two steadily moved up to finish second. The defending champion Kagoshima started badly (29th after the stage one) and could never get back into the race. Despite the second fastest stage seven by Koichiro Nagata, a 27:53 10000m runner, they could only finish 10th.
Seven stage, 48Km (7Km, 3Km, 8.5Km, 5Km, 8.5Km, 3Km, 13Km) ekiden
Weather Cloudy, 9.5C, humidity 62%, wind 0.1m/s
1) Aichi 2:20:07
2) Hyogo 2:21:00
µ3) Saitama 2:21:18
4) Fukuoka 2:21:23
5) Chiba 2:21:43
6) Miyazaki 2:22:02
7) Nagano 2:22:02
8) Yamaguchi 2:22:04
9) Kumamoto 2:22:15
10) Kagoshima 2:22:21
11) Kyoto 2:22:26
12) Hiroshima 2:22:36
Best stages
Stage Distance Name Time
1 7Km Hiroki Kawasaki 20:04 new stage record (high school)
2 3Km Hirotaka Honda 8:33 new stage record (junior high school)
3 8.5Km Takashi Maeda 23:58 new stage record
4 5Km Mitsunori Shirahama 14:32 (high school)
5 8.5Km Shunsuke Nomura 24:53 (high school)
6 3Km Kazuya Takahashi 8:44 new stage record (junior high school)
7 13Km Takeshi Hamano 37:44 new stage record
Note: Because the course was modified last year, it is quite easy to set a new stage record.
