Izumo was an unusually shut and thrilling race between Komazawa, KGU and Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin College that noticed the lead change each stage. All three groups had been inside a couple of seconds of one another in the beginning of the anchor stage, the place Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi of KGU dropped Hakone First Stage winner Kotaro Shinohara from Komazawa and Third Stage winner Aoi Ota of AGU to take the win.
KGU appears to be like like the favourite right here too, its top-8 10000 m common of 28:16.61 the category of the sector and giving it a strong benefit over the common stage size of 13.35 km. Izumo Third and 4th-placers AGU and Soka College are ranked 2nd and Third right here, Soka with higher 10000 m credentials however AGU with an edge in each 5000 m and half marathon.
Komazawa is ranked fifth, one higher than Izumo the place it finally ended up 2nd. It’ll virtually undoubtedly beat Chuo, that means the highest 4 colleges are prone to be the identical as at Izumo with the one query the ultimate order. Shut behind Komazawa on paper are Izumo Tenth-placer Daito Bunka College, Eleventh-placer Toyo College and Yosenkai Eighth-placer Tokyo Kokusai College. For Toyo lots depends upon whether or not prime 4th-year Kosuke Ishida, absent at Izumo, runs, and TKU ought to do higher than its rating if collegiate 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon document holder Richard Etir runs as an alternative of 2nd-year Amos Bett, however all three groups lack Komazawa’s momentum and besides possibly TKU it is unlikely we’ll see them in competition for the highest group at any level.
The highest 8 groups at Nationals auto-qualify for the next 12 months, and on paper there is a drop-off between TKU in Eighth and Waseda College in ninth. sixth at Izumo, Waseda must be within the race for a podium spot, however after failing to qualify for Hakone #10-ranked Tokai College wants a turnaround in its luck to do the identical. Ranked solely Eleventh, Josai College was Third at Hakone however solely seventh at Izumo proper behind Waseda. Josai is closely depending on Third-year duo Victor Kimutai and Shoya Saito, and any sort of setback for both will damage Josai’s probabilities of a podium end.
#12-ranked Nittai College and #13-ranked Teikyo College do not look to be in vary of the rostrum, however Teikyo is a pure ekiden program that usually outperforms itself within the large ekidens. With a pre-race rating of 11 in Izumo it took the ultimate podium spot in Eighth. Extra groups right here signifies that could be more durable to duplicate, however Teikyo’s power is skewed towards longer stage lengths and Nationals provides it the prospect to do even higher than at Izumo. #14 and #15-ranked Rikkyo College, winner on the Yosenkai, and Kanagawa College, ninth on the Yosenkai, aren’t prone to break by with a podium inserting. Rikkyo might conceivably do it if it hadn’t simply run a tough half marathon on the Yosenkai two weeks in the past.
The Nationwide College Choose Staff is ranked #16, and aside from it the highest non-Kanto Area crew is Kyoto Sangyo College at seventeenth. With virtually all good excessive schoolers opting to go to school within the Kanto Area with a purpose to get to run Hakone it is virtually inconceivable for the strongest non-Kanto Area crew to take even the weakest one from Kanto, so at finest count on to see KSU making an attempt to outrun the Choose Staff for prime non-Kanto honors.
56th Nationwide College Males’s Ekiden Entry Lists
Nagoya-Mie, 3 Nov. 2024
27 groups, 8 levels, 106.8 km
1. Komazawa College (Kanto Area)
2. Aoyama Gakuin College (Kanto Area)
3. Koku Gakuin College (Kanto Area)
4. Chuo College (Kanto Area)
5. Josai College (Kanto Area)
6. Soka College (Kanto Area)
7. Daito Bunka College (Kanto Area)
8. Tokyo Kokusai College (Kanto Area)
9. Sapporo Gakuin College (Hokkaido Area)
10. Tohoku College (Tohoku Area)
11. Tokai College (Kanto Area)
12. Toyo College (Kanto Area)
13. Waseda College (Kanto Area)
14. Nittai College (Kanto Area)
15. Rikkyo College (Kanto Area)
16. Teikyo College (Kanto Area)
17. Kanagawa College (Kanto Area)
18. Niigata College (Hokushinetsu Area)
19. Kogakkan College (Tokai Area)
20. Kansai College (Kansai Area)
21. Kyoto Sangyo College (Kansai Area)
22. Osaka Keizai College (Kansai Area)
23. Ritsumeikan College (Kansai Area)
24. Okayama College (Chugoku-Shikoku Area)
25. Kagoshima College (Kyushu Area)
26. Nationwide College Choose Staff
27. Tokai Area Choose Staff
© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
