The New Year's annual Hakone Ekiden qualifying round was held in Tachikawa, Tokyo for two consecutive years without spectators, and the top 10 schools, including Meiji University, won the right to participate.
The Hakone Ekiden qualifying session was changed from last year to prevent the infection of the new coronavirus, and is a circuit course of the Ground Self-Defense Force Tachikawa station in Tachikawa City, Tokyo, without spectators. increase.
Forty-one universities in the Kanto region participated in the qualifying session, running 21.0975 kilometers, which is the distance of the half marathon, and competing for the total time of the top 10 athletes from each school.
As a result, Meiji University won the right to participate in the Hakone Ekiden next year with a time of 10 hours 33 minutes 22 seconds.
In addition, Chuo University in 2nd place, Nippon Sport Science University in 3rd place, Yamanashi Gakuin University in 4th place, Kanagawa University in 5th place, Hosei University in 6th place, Chuo Gakuin University in 7th place, and Surugadai University in 8th place for the first time. , 9th place Senshu University, 10th place Kokushikan University got the right to participate.
The top Japanese player was Keigo Kurihara, a fourth-year student at Chuo Gakuin University, who had a time of 1 hour, 2 minutes and 46 seconds.
The Hakone Ekiden will be repatriated on January 2nd and 3rd next year, and will include 10 seeded schools such as Komazawa University, who won the overall championship in the previous tournament, and 10 schools that passed the qualifying round. 21 teams will participate.