It's so hot bloody! Komazawa University was 3 minutes and 19 seconds behind in the final interval, but it achieved a rebound to win the championship, and finally led the second place Soka University by 52 seconds! Aoyama Gakuin University went from 12th to fourth!
Written/Wicker
Edit/Wicker
Production/Macondo Running Laboratory
Strong wind blowing, youth storm, blood to fight!
At 8:00 a.m. local time on January 2, 2021, Japan's most closely watched relay race and the opening drama of the New Year, the 97th Japan Hakone Ekiden, opened in Otemachi!
This year, a total of 21 teams with a total of 336 registered players participated in the competition. This year, due to the epidemic situation, the organizing committee requires that in addition to the players who are competing on the track in each section, the rest of the runners, staff, and spectators must wear masks, and hope that the audience will stay at home as much as possible to watch the game through live broadcasting, and gather less to the scene to gather onlookers to refuel, so as to reduce the risk of epidemic infection.
However, the competition still could not stop the enthusiasm of the Japanese people for Japan's most high-profile relay race, and many people gathered on the side of the track to applaud and cheer. But compared with previous years, there are indeed many fewer lively scenes.
On the first day of the race, there are 5 sections, a total of 107.5 kilometers, and 21 universities compete in the same field.
In the end, after a morning of fierce competition, it was a surprising thing that Soka University took the lead in reaching the finish line of District 5, and won the first day of the 97th Hakone Eki Pass Road championship with a score of 5:28:08, with an average pace of 3 minutes and 03 seconds, 2 minutes and 14 seconds ahead of the second place Toyo University! It's also the school's first road champion!
Second place Toyo University, 05: 30: 22
Third place Komazawa University, 05: 30: 29
Dai-ichi Teikyo University, 05:30:39
Fifth place Tunghai University, 05: 31: 35
The gap between the 2nd and 4th places is not very large, within 20 seconds; surprisingly, last year's champion Aoyama Academy, did not play well, actually fell to the 12th place, a difference of 7 minutes and 35 seconds from the first place!
Take a look at the briefings of the first day's zone competitions
Zone 1: 21.3 km
Kosumasa Kamada, from Hosei University, took the lead in reaching the finish line at 1:03:00 to complete the handover, which is also the first time in 21 years that the university has received an interval award.
Tunghai University ranked second, Soka University ranked third, and Aoyama University ranked 6th.
Zone 2: 23.1km
Last year, Toyo University's "strongest college student" Akira Aizawa set a new interval record in this range: 1:05:57, and this year this record was refreshed again!
Tokyo International University, which ranked 14th in the first zone, and yegon vincent, an international student from the second zone, overtook 13 people in a row and reached the finish line with a time of 1:05:49 (pace 2 minutes and 51 seconds), improving the record of the second zone by 8 seconds and sending Tokyo International University to the top of the table! Too fierce!
In addition, Vincent also set a three-zone zone record last year: 59 minutes and 25 seconds!
Zone 2 Personal Achievement Record▼
Zone 1 + Zone 2 Overall Results▼
Zone 3: 21.4 km
Shotaro Ishihara, a freshman from Tunghai University, played well in this range, finishing first in the third district with a score of 1:02:05, helping the school rise to the first place; Soka University second; and Aoyama University has fallen to 11th place.
Zone 4: 20.9km
In this section, Paul onyiego, an international student at Yamanashi Gakuin University, played well, winning the range award with a score of 1:02:15, 34 seconds ahead of the second-place Soka University, and at this time, Soka University ranked first in the overall score.
Aoyama Gakuin University Sato I, with his fourth place in the district, helped the school advance to 10th place, but the overall result was 3 minutes and 41 seconds behind the first place.
Zone 5: 20.8 km
This section climbs 408 meters, which is also the most difficult section in the schedule. Toyo University, who is temporarily ranked No. 5 in this stage, sent Hayato Miyashita, the "Yamajin" who had previously set a record in the section, and he also lived up to expectations and overtook all the way to the Soka University player Yuta Mikami.
In the end, Yuta Mikami crossed the finish line with a second place in the 1:12:06 interval and ranked first in the overall result, helping the school to win the first day of the race!
In this period, Takeshi Shangren of Aoyama College suffered from severe cramps and did not play well, ranking 17th in his personal score.
Ranking of overall results on the first day
▼
On the first day of the competition, although Soka University did not achieve the first place in a range, the overall performance was the most stable, and finally steadily rose to the first place, perhaps this is the charm of the relay race, and the overall comprehensive strength is king!
The second day of the re-circuit race
The so-called "complex road" is to run from the end of the first day to the starting point, the same 5 intervals, the order is reversed.
At 8:00 a.m. local time this morning, the next day's schedule opened, and the departure time of the runners departed sequentially according to the lead time obtained on the first day of the competition: the xianglu champion Soka University took the lead, and after 2 minutes and 14 seconds, to Toyo University...
Zone 6: 20.8 km
In this section, Yuki Hanazaki from Komazawa University performed bravely, winning the first place in the section with a time of 57 minutes and 36 seconds, helping the school to catch up to the second place, and the gap with the first Soka University was shortened from 2 minutes and 21 seconds to 1 minute 08 seconds!
Tunghai University dropped from second to third place, and Aoyama University's Takahashi Tomoki helped the school rise from 12th to 10th with the third place in this section!
Zone 7: 21.3 km
Saburō from Tokyo International University won the Zone 6 Award with a time of 1:03:10 (pace 2:58 seconds), helping the school rise from 7th to 5th;
Soka University's personal performance in this range is only 2 seconds behind, and the gap with the second place is widened to 1 minute and 51 seconds; while Aoyama Gakuin University can only break the boat today, and Kontaro Kondo, the player in this section, also performed well, and the third place, the school's overall ranking rose to 7th.
Zone 8: 21.4 km
In this section, "A Dark Horse" from Meiji University, Oho Haeshi, ran out of the first place in the section, with a score of 1:03:59, 16 seconds ahead of Hideki Noguchi of The second place Toyo University, and the third place was Hideya Iwami from Aoyama Gakuin University, who helped the school rise from 7th to 5th.
Zone 9: 23.1km
In this range, Soka University won the interval award for the first time, and player Yoshiaki Ishizu led the second place by 1 minute and 06 seconds with a time of 1:08:14, and the total score was 3 minutes and 19 seconds ahead of the second place Komazawa University, which greatly widened the gap, depending on the last range played. At this time, Aoyama Gakuin University also fought to the 4th place!
Zone 10: 23 km
It's incredible that the Soka Gaku University, which has been leading the way, was actually overtaken by Komazawa University in the last moments, gradually narrowing the gap from 3 minutes and 19 seconds to 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds...
Ishikawa Takushin from Komazawa University, really strong, the state of courage, all the way to achieve the anti-overtaking, Soka Gaku University Onodera Isayuki, it seems that the physical fitness is not in the state, the pulled explosion running posture has also changed shape:
In the end, Komazawa University won the 97th Japan Hakone Ekiden Championship with a total score of 10:56:05!
The second place, Soka Gaku University, 52 seconds behind, Onodera Toyuki fought to the ground and was carried on a stretcher by medical staff. The final individual results ranked last among all the players in the section. But this spirit of not giving up for the sake of collective honor is worthy of admiration!
The third place Isoc University, Aoyama Gakuin University has surpassed the 4th place from 12 at the beginning of today, and the "Aoyama Spirit" is still strong!
This is the reason why Hakone Ekiden is so popular in Japan, no one can say whether it will win or lose until the last moment!
The nearly century-old Daily Hakone Eki culture and the spirit of fighting hard and not accepting defeat have deeply influenced Japanese middle-distance runners and runners. I hope that in the future, China can also have such a bloody legacy and inspire the running power of the new generation!