Kanno (left) completed the 9th leg run and handed over the sash to the 10th leg runner. (On January 3 in Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama City)
TOKYO, Jan. 4 -On January 3, 2026, 21 universities competed in the Day 2 for the 102nd Tokyo-Hakone Round-Trip College Ekiden Race (Hakone Ekiden) from Hakone Town, Kanagawa Prefecture, to Otemachi, Tokyo (from 6th to 10th stages totaling 109.6 kilometers). Aoyama Gakuin University won its 9th, and 3rd consecutive, overall victory. Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA), which started the second day of the two-day race in 13th place, passed on the sash (tasuki in Japanese) to the goal and finished in 18th place overall. However, it could not secure a seed that they had wanted for the past 16 years.
“Go for it, Yua!” The vigorous cheering came from 75-year-old farmers who grow Hitomebore-brand rice at their 1-hectare rice paddy field in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture. They are Misao and Mutsu Ito, grandparents of Yua Kanno, a sophomore and the 9th leg of the TUA team.
Kanno loves rice they grow. The grandson repeatedly told Mutsu that he wanted to run in the Hakone Ekiden. Mutsu took it as a “dreamy joke,” but his dream had come true.
Mutsu cheered on Kanno at around the 18km mark, near the finish line of the 9th section. “You made it! Well done!” she said in tears.
Cheered on by his grandparents, Kanno finished in 14th place and said, “I’m glad I was able to show that I never give up. I want to continue running with full energy for another two years.”
Misao Ito (right) and Mutsu (middle) cheering on their grandson Yua Kanno, the 9th leg (on January 3 in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture)