Hakone Ekiden (東京箱根間往復大学駅伝競走)

Komazawa University won its 6th Hakone Ekiden in the past decade today. Ekiden is Japanese for a road relay race - and Hakone is massive. My work had it showing on three TVs from start to stop (about 12 hours over 2 days).

Here's some photos of the finish...





The runners flash across the line in a blur..

...then get caught by teammates.




Mekubo Mogusu set a course record on day 1.

The biggest upset was Juntendo's failure to finish the first day when their final runner collapsed. The media wanted to know more, so after the race the team received a lot of attention


It was good to see some Juntendo runners could still smile



I took a photo of this Hosei University guy because I thought he is probably famous. Does anyone know who he is?


More photos of the Yamanashi Gakuin University Team





The crowds at Hakone were massive. At 11am there were already thousands on the route.