Route Inn Hotels wins Princess Ekiden, securing Queen’s Ekiden place

Route Inn Hotels won the Princess Ekiden for the first time on October 18, completing the six-stage, 42.195-kilometre relay in 2 hours, 18 minutes and 48 seconds. The qualifying race started and finished at Munakata Yurix in Fukuoka Prefecture. The top 16 teams earned places in the national women’s corporate relay championship, the Queen’s Ekiden, to be held in Miyagi Prefecture on November 22. [ 2 , 9 ]

Route Inn Hotels moved into the lead on the fifth stage, Nippon TV reported. It began the final stage with a 20-second advantage over Daihatsu and held on to win by seven seconds. The result secured a ninth consecutive appearance in the national final and a tenth appearance overall. Daihatsu finished second, followed by Toyota Industries and Iwatani. Panasonic came fifth after its final-stage runner overtook eight teams from 13th place and set a stage record. [ 8 ]

TOTO finished seventh and qualified for the first time in nine years, Nishi-Nippon Shimbun reported. Its final-stage runner advanced seven places from 14th. The newspaper also reported that Canon qualified in 13th place and Kyocera took the final qualifying position in 16th. TBS reported that Hitachi finished 17th, missing qualification by 46 seconds. Other TBS reports placed Ehime Bank 25th and Juhachi-Shinwa Bank (十八親和銀行) 21st, outside the qualifying positions. [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 9 ]

Mainichi’s preview said 30 teams would take part and reported that Otsuka Pharmaceutical withdrew because athlete fitness problems left it unable to assemble a team. The reports disagree on the national final’s edition number: Mainichi calls it the 46th, while TBS calls it the 45th; both list November 22 as the date. [ 1 , 2 ]