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This is the king’s intention. In the 97th Tokyo Hakone Ekiden University Roundtrip (Hakone Ekiden) on Day 3, Aoyama Gakuin University (Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture), which ranked 12th on the start route, won the victory on the return route catching up. He regained fourth place overall and showed his ability to win the overall championship last time out. Tokai University (Hiratsuka City) ranked 5th overall, and Kokugakuin University (Kawasaki City) ranked 9th, regaining seed rights. Kanagawa University (Yokohama City) ranked 13th, Nikkei University (same) 14th and Senshu University (Kawasaki City) 20th.
Seigaku University was described as “game over” by Principal Shin Hara at a press conference after the outward journey. The players set the goal of winning the return trip, saying, “There are still medals left,” and set out on the return trip with the pride of the champion, who has won the overall championship five times in the last six years.
When he was running in Halls 6 and 7 in 3rd place, Hideya Iwami (himself) in Hall 8, who was pushed back by Captain Yuta Kamibayashi (4th year) who was unable to run due to a fatigue fracture, said : “Do what you can do.” It rose to fifth place. “Kamibayashi’s part was able to run hard as a fourth grader, and he was able to do everything that he had done for four years,” he said.
The following district 9, Takayuki Iida (third year) also fought with second place in the section, and the 10th district, Hiroatsu Nakakura (second year) also fought with fourth place in the section, achieving a 5-hour return victory 25 minutes 33 seconds. Captain Kamibayashi, who was injured and acted as a water supply, said: “Everyone got excited and fought without giving up until the end. I’m glad we could create such a team,” he pointed out to the players.
Although he did not reach third place overall, director Hara praised, “The race will lead into next year and it showed a bullish appearance if it wasn’t. These kids are strong.”
Tokai University, which started fifth, was pushed to third place by Yuji Kawakami (sophomore), who ran hard in response to an instruction from the director of both cornering speeds to “run forward to win the championship” . The difference from the beginning was not closed to the end.
The five on the return trip are all second and third graders who participated for the first time. Captain Kiyu Shiozawa (4th year) entrusted hope to his young men, saying, “I can only thank everyone for doing what they can.”
Kokugakuin University finished in ninth place in the 10th district, Captain Kitsuki Rin (third year) in third place, and defended the correct position (within 10th place). Captain Kitsuki said: “I was reminded of the greatness of the team last year (third overall). We are going to reshape the team based on this year’s harvest,” he said, looking ahead to next year.
