The Hakone Ekiden is a New Year’s tradition in Japan, a 10 stage, 210km relay race run from Tokyo to Hakone and back. The two day race is run by 20 universities, and the top ten finishers are seeded in the next years race.
This year’s race was incredibly exciting, with winner Waseda university finishing just 22 seconds ahead of the 2 time defending champs Toyo university.
In this video, Kokugakuin University freshman TERADA (in red/black jersey) running in a tight group of 4 vying for the last 3 seed spots with less than 1km to go.
After pulling into 8th place with just a few hundred meters from the finish TERADA give his coach a heart attack by following the TV truck off the course! And falls to 11th place, losing the seeded position!
See Japan Running News for the detail, and watch the video to share the pulse racing moments with Terada’s coach, who himself ran the same leg of the race to victory some years back for Komazawa University.