Toyota Wins New Expo Ekiden

A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka’s hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday’s ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University, didn’t field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota, who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48.

Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University briefly sat in 2nd before Matsueda ran down 6th runner Yuta Asano, finishing 3rd overall as the top collegiate team in 2:34:18. Teikyo University had an excellent team performance to take 4th overall in 2:35:18. New Year Ekiden 4th-placer GMO holding off Komazawa by 20 seconds for 5th in 2:35:30, its second runner Yuto Imae the only one to break the Toyota/Fujitsu stranglehold on individual stage wins.

Aoyama Gakuin was another 8 seconds behind Komazawa in 7th, with head coach and major event backer Susumu Hara immediately calling for the race to become a regular fixture of the season instead of a one-off. The format and concept were definitely interesting and entertaining, but the major problem is that there just isn’t a good time for it to be held. Mid-March puts it right after the end of the domestic marathon season and right ahead of track season, eliminating a lot of the top talent at both ends of the spectrum. There are already too many races in February, and the only feasible option in January, the last weekend, conflicts with the Osaka Women’s Marathon and Osaka Half Marathon and comes just a week before the major half marathon of the season, Marugame. Whatever its merits, it’s hard to say what the new race’s future holds.