Special Feature: 100th Hakone Ekiden
Shota Inoue
01/08/2024
(Last update: 01/08/2024)
Matsuyama jumps in the Odawara relay station in the rain (Photo by Kohei Saeki)
100th Hakone Ekiden
January 2 and 3: 217.1 km round trip between Tokyo/Otemachi and Hakone/Lake Ashi
Overall Winner Aoyama Gakuin University 10 hours 41 minutes 25 seconds (new for the tournament)
2nd place Komazawa University 10 hours 48 minutes 00 seconds
3rd Josai University 10 times 52 minutes and 26 seconds
4th place Toyo University 10 hours 52 minutes 47 seconds
5th place Kokugakuin University 10 hours 55 minutes 27 seconds
6th place Hosei University 10 hours 56 minutes 35 seconds
7th place Waseda University 10 hours 56 minutes and 40 seconds
8th place Soka University 10 hours 57 minutes 21 seconds
9th place Teikyo University 10 hours 59 minutes 22 seconds
10th Dadong Bunka University 11 hours, 00 minutes and 42 seconds
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11th place Tokai University 11 hours 01 minutes 52 seconds
Toyo University placed 4th at the 100th Hakone Ekiden held on January 2 and 3, securing seeding rights for the 19th consecutive year, the longest streak of its kind. This season, he had difficult moments at both the Izumo Ekiden and the All Japan University Ekiden, but has his sights set firmly on the final race in Hakone. Kazuki Matsuyama (4th year, Gakuho Ishikawa), ace and captain since the relay season, thanked his teammates by saying: “I set a goal of ‘getting 3rd place’ and everyone followed me all the way there. ” .
Ward 2’s Ren Umezaki has a good run, moving up eight places
Keishun Kushima (4th year, Kobayashi) of District 1 ran in the 5th place group and placed 15th in the section, 1 minute, 6 seconds behind leader Kotaro Shinohara of Komazawa University (3rd year, Tomisato ). Director Toshiyuki Sakai praised the team, saying, “I think they connected the second department in a way that was easy for them to manage.” Ward 2 initially had the idea of appointing Matsuyama, but the person who was actually given the role was Ren Umezaki (3rd year, Uwajima Higashi), who had achieved good results this season, including 3rd place in the Kanto Intercollegiate Men’s Division. 1 Half Marathon in May. ). Director Sakai revealed his intentions in naming him as follows.
“Umezaki is the player on the team who has the most confidence in his own endurance. Last February he ran the Kumahi 30km road race as the top student, and he also plans to participate in the Nobeoka West Japan Marathon, so in this meaning, his stamina is better than Matsuyama’s, that’s all.” Umezaki fully met the director’s expectations.
Immediately after leaving, Umezaki maintained his resistance and said, “I wanted to catch up with someone from another team.” However, one of the candidates, Rei Matsunaga of Hosei University (4th year, Sendai Matsudo), who had started 5 seconds faster than him, accelerated rapidly. He followed players coming from behind and “I was conscious not to use too much force until Gonta-zaka in the second half.” This strategy worked and he moved up eight places to seventh, joining Ryota Kobayashi (3rd year, Toyokawa) in the 3rd department.
Umezaki, who was in charge of Hana’s second ward for the first time, said, “It was a good experience.” (Photo by Misa Fujii)
Director Toshiyuki Sakai: “We finally have all the actors.”
Matsuyama, who was in charge of the 2nd ward in his first and second years, ran in the 4th ward this time. “Although he has good sense at the beginning, he failed to continue training in September and October. However he is a strong climber, so he will play in the 4th district,” coach Sakai said. Matsuyama also performed as expected.
After finishing fifth, he passed Nihon University and ran alongside Teru Tsujihara (first year, Shoryo Fujisawa) of Kokugakuin University. I followed Hidema Yamanaka (4th year, Yokkaichi Engineering) from Josai University, who walked with me. With a time of 1 hour 1 minute and 37 seconds I moved up one place and came 2nd in the section. “I have been doing athletics since I was in elementary school with the aim of achieving this goal. I am so happy that I was lucky enough to be able to participate in the 100th competition,” he said, looking back on his last trip to Hakone.
In the 5th mountain climbing department, Mio Ogata (2nd year, Funabashi City) maintained his position. After finishing the outward journey in 4th place, Director Sakai said, “I think Umezaki in the 2nd ward and Matsuyama in the 4th ward won. If I had to say, I wanted Matsuyama to win the section prize. Kushima, Matsuyama and All of Japan, the actors who couldn’t be cast are back and we finally have all the actors,” he said, feeling positive about the role.
Ogata cuts the final ribbon at Lake Ashi in 4th place (Photo by Shota Inoue)
Ryotaro Kishimoto, who was seeking 3rd place, won the section prize.
He began his return journey 3 minutes and 49 seconds short of his pre-tournament goal of 3rd place overall. Although at this point there was a gap of almost five minutes to 11th place, which was outside the seeding zone, the team did not give up, saying: “If we brake one or two, we will fall in an instant .” (Trainer Sakai) Ta.
Mashu Nishimura (2nd year, Jiyugaoka), who was tasked with descending the mountain in section 6 for the second consecutive year, ran well, finishing 8th in the section with a time more than 1 minute faster than the last year, and Takaya Kumazaki (4th year) in Ward 7. At Takayama Nishi). Kumazaki, who ran alone, and Taichi Murakami (4th year, Kitami Ryoryo) of the 8th ward both had a tough run with double-digit rankings in each section, but Shu Yoshida (3rd year, International Academy of Hiroshima) of the 9th ward won Ryotaro Kishimoto (2nd year, Kochi Agriculture), who placed 2nd in the section and finished in 10th ward, was the best in the section and closely followed Josai University in 3rd ° place. He was now just 21 seconds away from his target position.
The host Kishimoto, who contributed to the seeding for 19 consecutive years by running for the section prize (Photo by Misa Fujii)
“What position are you aiming for?” “I want to get to third place.”
Toyo University had a rough season this season, finishing 8th at Izumo last October and 14th at the All Japan Championship the following November. It was thought that if things continued like this, it would be difficult to get the header rights for Hakone Ekiden, but coach Sakai said: “This is a team that is still in development. All three players will not they have enough tactics to aim for the best, so we are looking forward to the Hakone Ekiden.” That’s how it happened,” he says. Matsuyama told us how he decided to aim for 3rd place overall in Hakone.
“In early December, at a meeting with the participation of the coach, I was asked: “What position are we aiming for?” They aimed to rebuild the East. We decided: “Let’s build a team to achieve this goal” and at the at the end the team reunited.”
After suffering against Izumo and All Japan, Matsuyama played a central role in the team’s rebuilding (Photo by Kohei Saeki)
To do this, Matsuyama says he first had to practice a lot and rebuild trust with the staff. “Even though the results are not in yet, there are people who are dissatisfied with them. There were some people who said, ‘I think we’re missing something fundamental,’ so the fourth-year students I want to bring with me initiative and build from the beginning.”
Soon after the new team was formed, Mahiro Sato (4th year, Toyo University Ushiku) was named captain. However, “since this is a club activity with a large number of people, when we decided, ‘Let’s not just let Sato do it, but let all the fourth graders take the lead,’ and I, who he is said to be the ace in relays, I supported Sato as captain, I thought it was important to work together,” says Matsuyama. In early autumn, towards the end of the summer training camp, he was named captain. Behind the takeover of seeding rights by the team for the 19th consecutive year was the ace’s strong determination to lead the team with both his words and his running.
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