In Japan, New Year celebration always comes with good food & a few Ekiden (long distance relay) races; corporate, intervarsity, high school, male & female.

Every new year, in Japan, Hakone Ekiden 箱根驿传 (short for Tokyo-Hakone Round-Trip University Ekiden Race东京箱根间往复大学驿传竞走); a 2 consecutive days, 200 kilometres+ male intervarsity relay attracts a lot of media attention. Twenty highly competitive Japanese university teams would run a 10 legs (from Tokyo to among the mountains) out & back relay race. They are not just student runners; they perform near the top of the world. Many of the Ekiden runners eventually represent their own countries at the world stage.

The 5th leg of the first day was a undulating climb of over 800m in about 16km then finish off with a 4km flatter terrain. That is approximately in one hour running to the top of;

a) Hong Kong island for 1.5 times or

b) Singapore Bukit Timah for 5 times.

2026 overall champion Aoyama Gakuin University started their first leg with their 2025 anchor runner, this year he only managed to pass his sash to his teammate in 16th place (out of 20 after 1st leg…)! To cut the story short, over the next 180km, his other 9 teammates worked their way through and got the team a threepeat championship!

Side story was that one of the Aoyama Gakuin university runners, Minawari Sena (皆渡七星 aka 7 ⭐) passed on (leukaemia) in 2025 but he ‘raced’ too!

His teammates had ‘7 ⭐’ on their bodies & his dad was there with his ash at the race!

Meanwhile “Teikyo University Ekiden Team” is the most “relentless” 永不放棄

After 5 ‘out legs’ on day 1, Teikyo University was 17th! 4’15 behind… their coach: ‘if they can drop us by 4’15 today, we can get back 4’15 tomorrow!’ That trust!

But how to overcome that almost 1.5km gap?

​Second day the 5 ‘back legs’ of the team managed to move up from 17th → 16 → 14 → 12 → 11 → 9th!

Teikyo University crossed the finish line with a total time of 10hrs 53’15. Not only did they overcome the time deficit, they came in overall 9th & managed to keep its prestigious seeding team status (top 10) for 2027! It was also their threepeat of dramatic recovery!

Historically, professional corporations & intervarsity Ekiden races attract approximately 30-40% Japanese TV viewers, many more overseas. Why?

Imho, it sows hopes.

What are yours?