Can Meijo Make it 8-Straight? Morinomiyako Ekiden Preview

Sunday’s Morinomiyako Ekiden in Sendai is without doubt one of the two huge national-level ekidens on the collegiate ladies’s ekiden circuit. That is the period of Meijo College, who’ve received the final seven Morinomiyako titles and the final six at December’s Mt. Fuji. Girls’s Ekiden, and nearly the one actual story right here is whether or not anybody can cease them. 5 out the six members of final yr’s successful workforce, Nanaka Yonezawa, Kaede Rikimaru, Asuka Ishimatsu, Saki Harada, and Nanase Tanimoto, are again, and the one one lacking, 2nd-year Naru Yabutani, completed the bottom on the workforce on her stage at 4th final time. Tanimoto, the one 4th-year on the workforce, has had extra downs than ups this season, however that was true final yr too and Meijo got here by.

Perpetual 2nd-placer Daito Bunka College was solely 52 seconds behind over the 38.0 km Morinomiyako course, and that was with one among its runners ending solely Twelfth on her stage. Its whole 2023 lineup is again, led by 2nd-year Sarah Wanjiru. The runner who underperformed, Momona Yoshimoto, was 35 seconds slower than Meijo’s Asuka Ishimatsu, and lead runner Yui Yoshii was additionally 35 seconds slower than Meijo’s Nanaka Yonezawa. Between the 2 of them it is the margin they would wish to stick with Meijo, nevertheless it’ll take a full workforce efficiency to make that occur.

However DBU is not the one issue. Ritsumeikan College led the primary two levels final yr and had three particular person stage wins, its solely setback a 14th-place run by 1st-year Yura Arata. In the end it completed third in a photograph end with DBU 52 seconds again from Meijo. Anchor Asa Kobayashi was a giant a part of catching again as much as DBU however has graduated, however she and Arata are the one members of final yr’s workforce not again this yr. If it could fill within the two weaker runs final yr and make up for Kobayashi’s commencement then it’s going to even be in vary of Meijo. However that is the next bar than DBU has to clear.

Final yr’s 4th and Fifth-placers Josai College and Nittai College additionally suffered from one weak hyperlink final yr and return nearly the identical lineups, however having completed 45 seconds and 1:24 respectively behind DBU and Ritsumeikan it might be stretch for both to be in rivalry for the win. A high 3 end by both can be a giant breakthrough.

Past them, the million-yen query is whether or not collegiate 10000 m document holder Seira Fuwa will run for final yr’s Twelfth-placer Takushoku College. Now a 4th-year, Fuwa has raced little since she set the 2021 collegiate ladies’s ekiden season on hearth as a 1st-year solely to get an Achilles harm in January, 2022 that become serial accidents. Fuwa ran 33:12.79 for seventh in final month’s Nationwide College Championships 10000 m, exhibiting that she’s in ok form to run even when effectively over 2 minutes behind the place she was three years in the past. No one actually expects her to show issues the other way up once more like in 2021, however no matter her longterm prospects are at this level followers hope to see her run Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji one final time.

Morinomiyako Ekiden Entry Checklist

Sendai, Miyagi, 27 Oct. 2024

26 groups, 6 levels, 38.0 km

1. Meijo College (Tokai Area)

2. Daito Bunka College (Kanto Area)

3. Ritsumeikan College (Kansai Area)

4. Josai College (Kanto Area)

5. Nittai College (Kanto Area)

6. Osaka Gakuin College (Kansai Area)

7. Kansai College (Kansai Area)

8. Tohoku Fukushi College (Tohoku Area)

9. Sapporo Kokusai College (Hokkaido Area)

10. Sendai College (Tohoku Area)

11. Tsukuba College (Kanto Area)

12. Juntendo College (Kanto Area)

13. Chuo College (Kanto Area)

14. Takushoku College (Kanto Area)

15. Teikyo Kagaku College (Kanto Area)

16. Tamagawa College (Kanto Area)

17. Toyo College (Kanto Area)

18. Niigata Iryo Fukushi College (Hokushinetsu Area)

19. Chukyo Gakuin College (Tokai Area)

20. Hyogo College (Kansai Area)

21. Kantaiheiyo College (Chugoku Shikoku Area)

22. Fukuoka College (Kyushu Area)

23. Kyoto Sangyo College (Kansai Area)

24. Kansai Gaikokugo College (Kansai Area)

25. Tokyo Nogyo College (Kanto Area)

26. Tohoku Area Choose Workforce (Tohoku Area)