Hakone Ekiden Entry Lists and Rankings – by Brett Larner – Japan Running News

The KGRR, organizers of the Hakone Ekiden, have released the 16-member entry lists for the 21 university teams running the 92nd edition of Japan's biggest sports event on January 2 and 3. 

For the first time ever JRN has made the complete entry lists available in English, with name, class year, 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon bests for all 334 athletes in the field and top 10 average 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon times for all 21 teams.  Click any listing below to enlarge.

With the Hakone Ekiden's 10 stages averaging 21.71 km each, half marathon times are the most relevant to a team's performance.  Teams are listed below in order of the average half marathon PB of their 10 fastest men.  In some cases half marathon PBs are extrapolated from 20 km times.  The averages for Yamanashi Gakuin University and Nihon University, both of which have 2 Kenyan members apiece, include the times of only their faster Kenyan as only 1 can run Hakone.

JRN will publish its annual detailed Hakone preview closer to the end of the month, but a quick analysis breaks the field into four clear groups:

• One group of four possible winners, or rather of three universities hoping to take down defending champion and heavy favorite Aoyama Gakuin University which has a spectacular 10-man half marathon average of 1:02:36.
• A second group of 5 universities with a lock on making the 10-deep seeded bracket and which will be shooting to make the top 5.
• A group of 6 schools in range of taking 10th, the last seeded place for the 2017 Hakone Ekiden.
• A final group of 6 also-rans including the debuting Tokyo Kokusai University and the Kanto Region Student Alliance Team made up of high-placing individuals at October's Hakone Ekiden Qualifier whose schools did not make the cut.  Among them, Jobu University has only entered 14 runners instead of the full allowance of 10 starters and 6 alternates.

6 universities in the field have 10-man 5000 m averages under 14:00, 4 have 10000 m averages under 29:00, and 2 have half marathon averages under 1:03:00.  Only Aoyama Gakuin hits all 3 categories.  The quality of the race up front and the density of teams in contention for the last seeded position promise another spectacular year. 

Look for detailed pre-Hakone coverage on JRN in the weeks to come and for live coverage throughout the race on @JRNLive.

©2015 Brett Larner
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by Brett Larner – Japan Running News