RESOURCES FOR RACE DIRECTORS

Fujitsu wins by one second in the 100Km New Year Ekiden

By K Ken Nakamura

Ryoji Matsushita of Fujitsu outkicked Yuzo Onishi of Nissin Foods and Tomoya Adachi of Asahi Kasei in the seventh and final stage to bring victory to his team in the JPN Corporate Team Men's Ekiden Championships, also known as the New Year Ekiden. The race will be long remembered, for it was the closest contested New Year ekiden ever in its 53 year history; three teams finished within a second after seven stages totaling 100Km. Previously, the closest New Year ekiden race ever was in 1996, when Kanji Moriso of Kanebo outkicked Nozomi Saho of Asahi Kasei by one second. Thirty-seven teams who qualified through the district qualification races took part in the Ekiden Championships which started and finished at the front of the Gunma prefectural government building in Maebashi. 

It was second victory for Fujitsu, who won their first ekiden championships nine years ago on the New Year day 2000. "I thought the race may be close, but I did not expect the race to come down to the final meters," said Tadashi Fukushima, who coaches Fujitsu track team. Nine years ago Fukushima ran the fourth stage for the winning Fujitsu team, while Atsushi Fujita, who ran the fourth stage this year, was the anchor for the team. Fujita, former national marathon record (2:06:51 in 2000 Fukuoka Marathon) holder brought his team to the lead pack nearing the end of22.3Km fourth stage, the longest stage of the Ekiden. 

Before the start of the final stage, Fukushima told Matsushita "don't run the race you might come to regret later. I trusted Matsushita will do it for the team," continued Fukushima. Matsushita, the anchor for the Fujitsu, said, "I still cannot believe I finished first," He surged once with 3Km to go, and started his kick with 300m to go. "That was my plan," said Matsushita to Toshihiko Seko (marathon runner turned TV commentator) who posed the question after the race.

The defending champion Konica Minolta, who won six times in the last eight year, was distant fourth. Two-time champion (won twice in last five years) Chugoku Electric Power fared even worth. They were seventh. 

How the race unfolded:

Stage 1 12.3Km

Without Kenyans in the stage one, the race started with a mediocre pace. Just before 6Km (covered in 18 minutes) Ryuji Ohno of Asahi Kasei, 2004 Olympian at 10000m, surged to break the lead pack. "I was planning to break away in the mid-part of the race, but the wind was quite strong so I could not completely break away from everyone," said Ohno. As he passed 7Km in 20:41, only Satoru Kitamura of Nissin Foods was with Ohno. However, after 8Km, Takayuki Matsuyama of Konica Minolta, the world 30Km road record holder, started to push the pace in the chase pack. By 9Km, the lead pack consisted of five runners – Ohno, Kitaumura, Matsumiya, Hideyuki Anzai of JAL and Naosato Yoshimura of Toyota was formed in front. Five ran together until Matsumiya surged at 11.3Km into the race. Ohno was able to stay with Matsumiya, and 500m later Ohno outkicked Matsumiya.

Stage 2 8.3Km

Starting this year, new rule went into effect. Foreign runners can only run this (shortest) stage. Gideon Ngatuny, who runs for Nissin Foods, took over the lead immediately, and covered the first Km in 2:36. Josphat Ndambiri of Komori Corporation and Yacob Jarso of Honda covered the first Km even faster – 2:33. They came as close as 10 seconds to Ngatuny in the middle of the stage, but at the end, Nissin Foods was 12 seconds ahead of Komori Corporation, who in turn was four seconds ahead of Honda. Ndambiri (fifth at 10000m in the 2007 World Championships) recorded the stage best.

Stage 3 13.7Km

Suehiro Ishikawa of Honda overtook Kazuyoshi Tokumoto of Nissin Foods 7.8Km into the stage. Tokumoto tried to stay with Ishikawa, but was successful for only a Km. At the end of the stage, Honda was in the lead with Nissin Foods five seconds behind. Yuki Iwai of Asahi Kasei recorded the stage best, while Makoto Fukui of Fujitsu was second fastest in the stage. They move their team back in contention. Asahi Kasei moved up to fifth, one place behind Fujitsu. 

Stage 4 22.3Km

Kosaku Hoshina of Nissin Foods caught Honda 2Km into the stage. Takashi Horiguchi of Honda tried to stay with him, but after 5.8Km into the stage, Hoshina was alone in front until Keita Akiba and Atsushi Fujita caught and passed Hoshina . "I wanted to take over the lead in my stage," said Fujita after the race. But Akiba was just too fast during the final sprint.

Stage 5 15.9Km

Satoru Sasaki of Asahi Kasei caught Bene Zama of Nissin Foods, Takayuki Ohta of Fujitsu, and Tsuyoshi Kato of Komori Corporation at 5Km. Kato was the first to lose contact at 6.5Km, thus leaving three in the front. In the closing section of the stage, Ohta outkicked Zama and Sasaki. 

Stage 6 11.8Km

Shoji Akutsu of Fujitsu, Shuichi Fujii of Nissin Foods and Tadayuki Ojima of Asahi Kasei continued to battle it out at the front. 

Stage 7 15.7Km

Ryoji Matsushta of Fujitsu, Yuzo Onishi of Nissin foods and Tomoya Adachi of Asahi Kasei took turn in surging, but the wind was too strong and thus no-one was able to break away until the final meters. Matsushita started his kick with 300m to go and won by one second. 

Weather at 8AM: Sunny; temperature 2.7C; humidity 52%; wind 2.3m/s West North West

Results: 

1) Fujitsu 4:51:55 
2) Nissin Foods 4:51:56
3) Asahi Kasei 4:51:56 
4) Konica Minolta 4:53:34 
5) Toyota 4:53:45
6) Toyota Boshoku 4:54:15
7) Chugoku Electric Power 4:54:29
8) Honda 4:54:31
9) Yakult 4:56:17
10) Komori Corporation 4:56:17
11) JAL 4:56:21
12) JR East JPN 4:56:22
13) Kyudenko 4:56:23
14) Subaru 4:56:31
15) NTN 4:58:01
16) Sagawa Express 4:58:03
17) Otsuka Pharmaceutical 4:58:28
18) Yasukawa Electric 4:58:43
19) Mazda 4:58:49
20) Hitachi Cable 5:00:11


Stage Distance Time Athlete Team

1 12.3Km 35:39 Ryuji Ohno Asahi Kasei 

35:41 Takayuki Matsumiya Konica Minolta 

35:42 Satoru Kitamura Nissin Foods

35:50 Hideyuki Anzai JAL

35:55 Naoto Morimoto Sanyo Steel 

35:56 Akihiko Tsuburai Mazda

35:56 Norihide Fujimori Chugoku Electric Power

35:58 Yoshinori Suzuki Fujitsu

35:58 Yosuke Kanetsuka Honda

2 8.3Km 21:54 Josphat Ndambiri Komori Corporation

22:02 Gedion Ngatuy Nissin Foods

22:02 Yacob Jarso Honda

22:42 Jonathan Ndiku Hitachi Cable

22:45 Joseph Gitau JFE Steel

22:54 Samuel Ndungu Aichi Steel

22:59 Nicholas Makau JAL

22:59 Charles Kamathi Fujitsu

23:05 John Thuo Toyota

23:08 Daniel Njenga Yakult

23: 11 Joseph Mwaniki Konica Minolta

23:13 Cyrus Njui Nissan Motors

23:15 Hilary Chenonge Aisan Industry

23:17 Micah Njeru Toyota Boshoku

23:31 Davis Kabiru Kyudenko

23:32 Abera Ertiban Kurosaki Harima

23:32 Girma Assefa Subaru

23:32 James Mwangi NTN

23:36 Peter Kariuki Mazda 

3 13.7Km 38:14 Yuki Iwai Asahi Kasei

38:46 Makoto Fukui Fujitsu

38:50 Yoshinori Oda Toyota

38:50 Takashi Ohta Konica Minolta

38:54 Atsushi Sato Chugoku Electric Power

38:56 Noritaka Fujiyama SUMCO TECH

38:59 Hiroyuki Ikegaya NTN

39:00 Suehiro Ishikawa Honda

39:05 Yuki Matsuoka Otsuka Pharmaceutical

39:18 Makoto Harada JR East JPN

39:18 Ken-ichi Kita Kyudenko

39:19 Shigeru Fukurawa Subaru

39:20 Satoshi Irifune Kanebo

39:21 Kazuyoshi Tokumoto Nissin Foods

4 22.3Km 1:03:04 Keita Akiba Komori Corporation

1:03:16 Yusei Nakao Toyota Boshoku

1:03:26 Atsushi Fujita Fujitsu

1:03:45 Tomoyuki Sato Asahi Kasei

1:04:02 Hideaki Date Chugoku Electric Power

1:04:09 Takeshi Hamano Toyota

1:04:13 Kosaku Hoshina Nissin Foods

1:04:18 Atsushi Ikawa Otsuka Pharmaceutical

1:04:19 Ryo Yamamoto Sagawa Express

1:04:22 Kazuhiro Maeda Kyudenko

1:04:23 Arata Fujiwara JR East JPN

5 15.9Km 47:26 Satoru Sasaki Asahi Kasei

47:33 Bene Zama Nissin foods

47:42 Takayuki Ota Fujitsu

47:45 Naoki Okamoto Chugoku Electric Power

48:10 Hirokatsu Kurosaki Konica Minolta

48:16 Kensuke Takahashi Toyota

48:17 Yoshihiro Yamamoto Toyota Boshoku

48:36 Ryota Komano JR East JPN 

6 11.8Km 34:37 Tomoo Tsubota Konica Minolta

35:16 Shoji Akutsu Fujitsu

35:17 Shuichi Fujii Nissin Foods

35:19 Tadayuki Ojima Asahi Kasei 

35:21 Shingo Mishima Toyota

35:33 Masakazu Honda Honda

35:38 Takuya Kuroyanagi Toyota Boshoku

35:44 Hironori Shuto Yakult

35:46 Shunsuke Nagato JR East JPN

…

36:10 Shigeru Aburaya Chugoku Electric Power

7 15.7Km 47:26 Seigo Ikegami Honda

47:42 Tomoya Adachi Asahi kasei

47:48 Yuzo Onishi Nissin Foods

47:48 Ryoji Matsushita Fujitsu

47:52 Hironori Takaoka JAL

47:54 Kurao Umeki Chugoku Electric Power

47:57 Toyoshi Ishige Yakult

48:03 Takanori Ide Kyudenko

48:04 Munehiro Sugaya Toyota

48:11 Tomoya Shimizu Sagawa Express



After Stage 1 12.3Km

1) Asahi Kasei 35:39

2) Konica Minolta 35:41

3) Nissin Foods 35:42

4) JAL 35:50

5) Sanyo Steel 35:55

6) Mazda 35:56

7) Chugoku Electric Power 35:56

8) Fujitsu 35:58

9) Honda 35:58

After Stage 2 20.6Km

1) Nissin Foods 57:44

2) Komori Corporation 57:56 

3) Honda 58:00

4) Hitachi Cable 58:48

5) JFE Steel 58:49

6) JAL 58:49

7) Konica Minolta 58:52

8) Fujitsu 58:57

After Stage 3 34.3Km

1) Honda 1:37:00

2) Nissin Foods 1:37:05

3) Konica Minolta 1:37:42 

4) Fujitsu 1:37:43

5) Asahi Kasei 1:37:44

6) Toyota 1:37:55

After Stage 4 56.6Km

1) Komori Corporation 2:41:08

2) Fujitsu 2:41:09

3) Nissin Foods 2:41:18

4) Asahi Kasei 2:41:29 

5) Toyota Boshoku 2:42:03

6) Toyota 2:42:04

7) Konica Minolta 2:42:11

8) Honda 2:42:20

9) Chugoku Electric Power 2:42:40

After Stage 5 72.5Km 

1) Fujitsu 3:28:51 

2) Nissin Foods 3:28:51 

3) Asahi Kasei 3:28:55

4) Toyota Boshoku 3:30:20

5) Toyota 3:30:20

6) Konica Minolta 3:30:21

7) Chugoku Electric Power 3:30:25

After Stage 6 84.3Km

1) Fujitsu 4:04:07

2) Nissin Foods 4:04:08

3) Asahi Kasei 4:04:14 

4) Konica Minolta 4:04:56

5) Toyota 4:05:41

6) Toyota Boshoku 4:05:58

7) Chugoku Electric Power 4:06:35