Hakone Ekiden 2026: Aoyama Gakuin Leads Tokyo-Hakone Ekiden After Record-Breaking End to 1st Day (Update 1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:20 JST, January 2, 2026

A record-breaking fifth-leg performance by Asahi Kuroda saw Aoyama Gakuin University claim the lead at the halfway mark of the 102nd Tokyo-Hakone Intercollegiate Ekiden on Friday.

Aoyama Gakuin entered the day’s final leg in fifth place. However, Kuroda, a fourth-year student, finished the 20.8-kilometer leg in 1 hour 7 minutes 16 seconds, breaking the previous record by almost 2 minutes. He caught Shinsaku Kudo, a third-year student at Waseda University, at the 19.2-kilometer mark, having started the leg 2 minutes 12 seconds adrift.

Aoyama Gakuin finished the outbound journey in first for a third consecutive year and set a new record of 5:18:08 in the process. It will aim to match that winning streak in the return journey on Saturday.

Twenty-one teams competed along the course starting outside The Yomiuri Shimbun Building in Tokyo’s Otemachi district to the parking area at Ashinoko lake in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Chuo University held the lead until the fourth leg for a second consecutive year. Kudo then took the lead, before eventually finishing 18 seconds behind Kuroda.