It is this university that threatens the champion Komazawa..! Hakone Ekiden: A Complete Guide to the “Gods of the Mountains” in the run-up to the 100th Ekiden!
A complete guide to the 100th Hakone Ekiden, featuring all the noteworthy athletes who will make their mark on the history of the 100th race! The battle for the new "God of the Mountain" is also hot! Will Komada Univ. win by a landslide? Or will it be Chugaku University, Kokugakuin University, or Aogaku University?
Komadai’s order is likely to be Suzuki in the 2nd ward and Sato in the 3rd ward. Shinohara is expected to enter in the 1st or 4th section. The rival schools will be looking to take a massive lead before Sato comes out and put pressure on them. The team aiming to achieve this is Chūōdai University, which finished second in the last race.
I wanted to show Komadai players that we have their backs in All-Japan,” said Sato. That didn’t happen, but we intend to do the same at the Hakone Ekiden. I think Sato won’t be as strong as he was in All-Japan at the Hakone distance. I think we have a chance to win,” said Masakazu Fujiwara, ekiden coach.
In the last Hakone Ekiden, Chudai’s Yoshii took the top spot by running the 2nd section in 1:06:22, the 8th fastest time in the team’s history, and Nakano won the 3rd section in consecutive years. This season, Yamato’s younger brother, Shunsuke Yoshii (sophomore), has run the 5000m in 13:22.01, the 6th fastest time ever by a Japanese student, and Nakano has run 13:24.11, the 10th fastest. The likely order this time is an aggressive one, with Shun Yoshii in the 1st section, Dai Yoshii in the 2nd section, and Nakano in the 3rd section, with Hitoshi Yuasa (4th year), the captain who outperformed Komadai’s Suzuki in the 7th section at All-Japan, possibly being used in the 4th section. Ace runner Dai Yoshii, who did poorly in the All-Japan, is eager for revenge, saying, “I want to take the lead in Hakone on my own. If he can defeat the three pillars of Komada University, he will be able to win the overall V for the first time in 28 years.
KOKU GAKUIN UNIVERSITY, which finished fourth last time, also has a strong three-poster team of Kenzo Ijichi (4th year), Kiyosumi Hirabayashi (Kiyoto), and Ayumu Yamamoto (both 3rd years). Hirabayashi, in particular, ran well in the 2nd section in the last race, and won the section award in the 7th section in the All-Japan race, where the aces of each school gathered. There is a possibility that he will be ahead of Komadai in the second section.
It would be interesting to see if Aoyama Gakuin University (hereafter, Aoyama Gakuin University), the second place finisher in All-Japan, is able to fight for the lead at the end of the 2nd section.
In the 100th race, the match-up between the three aces of Komada University, the absolute champion, will determine the outcome of the race. Which university will be smiling in victory?
