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Tokyo Repeats in East Japan Women's Ekiden

by Brett Larner

The team representing Tokyo won its 2nd straight victory at the East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima Prefecture on Nov. 9, outlasting a surprise challenge from the Niigata Prefectural team to take the 2008 title. The East Japan Women's Ekiden features a 9-stage, 42.195 km course and teams made up of star professional, university, high school and junior high school runners from the 18 prefectures in eastern Japan and is one of a series of regional precursors to January's All-Japan Interprefectural Women's Ekiden.

Tokyo won comfortably last year but this year was threatened over the entire course by the Niigata team, which had never placed higher than 8th in the event's 23 previous runnings. Niigata's Chiaki Takagi wore down Tokyo's Rie Takayoshi to win the 6 km 1st stage, breaking away at 4 km. Takagi finished the stage in 19:08 to Takayoshi's 19:11.

Tokyo's Chisa Nishio overtook Niigata's Moeno Nakamura with 1 km to go on the 4 km 2nd stage, Nakamura also falling prey to Saitama's Natsuko Goto who continued her impressive season after a brilliant run with Nihon University at last month's Morinomiyako Ekiden. Nishio led Goto by 17 seconds at the end of the stage, with Nakamura another 10 seconds back.

Niigata runner Kanako Fujiishi quickly overtook Saitama's Chisako Aikawa on the 3 km 3rd stage, but Tokyo's Chiemi Tachimori maintained her team's 17 second lead. It looked like the race might have already resolved into a repeat of last year's edition, but on the 3 km 4th stage Niigata's junior high school student Miwa Yokoyama ran far beyond her years, catching Tokyo's Ayaka Takahashi just past the 1 km point. She showed impressive form and potential as she opened Niigata a 29 second lead over Tokyo.

Tomoko Watanabe ran strongly on the 5.0875 km 5th stage but was no match for Tokyo's Azusa Nojiri who was truly incredible in catching Watanabe just after the 2 km mark. The 26 year-old Nojiri, who runs for the Daiichi Seimei jitsugyodan team, has had a highly unusual career parth, only beginning to run professionally in August of this year. Prior to that she was an international-level cross-country skier who had competed on the Japanese national team at the World Cup. Her muscular, aggressive style was in another class from the other women on her stage as she singlehandedly gave Tokyo a 26 second lead.

Tokyo's Yukari Abe widened her lead to 33 seconds over the 4.1075 km 6th stage while Niigata's Ami Watanabe was about 30 seconds ahead of 3rd place contenders Kanagawa and Chiba. Michiru Otsuki did her part for the Tokyo team, adding another 9 seconds to its lead over the 4 km 7th stage, but on the 3 km 8th stage Tokyo runner Karin Fujimoto was outdone by Niigata's star Megumi Minoguchi. Minoguchi made up the 42 second margin with room to spare, flying by Fujimoto with 240 m to go, setting a new stage record of 9:09 and setting up a battle on the 10 km anchor stage by giving Niigata a 7 second lead over Tokyo.

Niigata's Manami Murayama ran gamely but was no match for Tokyo's anchor Yoshiko Fujinaga. Fujinaga overtook Murayama after only 800 m and never looked back, bringing Tokyo in to win in 2:19:15. Murayama was overtaken by Chiba's Yukie Nagata and Kanagawa`s Kasumi Oyagi just before the entrance to the stadium finish, settling for 4th, its lowest position of the day but still ahead of the team's target of a 6th place finish. Nagata, running her first-ever 10 km, outkicked Oyagi to give Chiba a 2nd place finish with Kanagawa, last year's runner-up, close behind in 3rd.

2008 East Japan Women's Ekiden
Stage Best Performances
1st stage - 6 km: Chiaki Takagi (Niigata) - 19:08
2nd stage - 4 km: Chisa Nishio (Tokyo) - 12:53
3rd stage - 3 km: Kanako Fujiishi (Niigata) - 9:53
4th stage - 3 km: tie - Miwa Yokoyama (Niigata) and Tomoka Haneda (Tochigi) - 9:25
5th stage - 5.0875 km: Aya Nagata (Chiba) - 16:19
6th stage - 4.1075 km: Emi Kameyama (Nagano) - 13:13
7th stage - 4 km: Michiru Otsuki (Tokyo) - 13:14
8th stage - 3 km: Megumi Minoguchi (Niigata) - 9:09 - new stage record
9th stage - 10 km: Haruka Obara (Iwate) - 32:28

Team Results
1. Tokyo - 2:19:15
2. Chiba - 2:20:05
3. Kanagawa - 2:20:12
4. Niigata - 2:20:16
5. Miyagi - 2:20:48
6. Fukushima - 2:21:05
7. Saitama - 2:21:10
8. Gunma - 2:21:10
9. Yamanashi - 2:21:43
10. Nagano - 2:22:04
11. Tochigi - 2:22:10
12. Hokkaido - 2:22:29
13. Akita - 2:22:36
14. Ibaraki - 2:23:05
15. Yamagata - 2:24:08
16. Iwate - 2:25:05
17. Aomori - 2:26:21
18. Shizuoka - 2:26:44

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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