Daiichi Life Insurance, coached by 1991 world championships silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita, won yesterday’s All-Japan Women’s Corporate Ekiden Championship, far and away the biggest team event on the Japanese running calendar. With Yoshimi Ozaki (adidas) setting the pace with a 22:17 effort in the opening 7K leg. Daiichi became the first team in 17 years to lead from start to finish and win for the first time since 2002. Yuriko Kobayashi (Mizuno) also had a brilliant run in the second leg for her Toyota club, passing nine athletes in the 3.9K second leg. kayoko Fukushi (adidas) was 3rd in 36:00 in the 10.9K third leg.

In the final team standings, it was a clean sweep of the top three places by teams Boulder Wave assisted this year with altitude training camps in Boulder. Behind Daiichi was Panasonic in 2nd and Sekisui Chemicals in 3rd. Wacoal (6th) and Universal Entertainment (10th) were two more top-ten clubs who hired us for their summer training camps.

Click here for a link to the IAAF article on yesterday’s race, including a photo of Yoshimi Ozaki.