🏃 52nd Annual Ito Ekiden Relay 🏃

On Sunday February 5th, Ito City held its 52nd annual relay race, a 20.7 km course starting from Izu Kogen Travel Station Grand Pal Port and ending at City Hall.

A total of 28 teams participated across 3 divisions: high school boys, general/high school girls, and general boys. Divisions change every year dependent on the number of participants in each category.

The concept of EKIDEN goes back to when the race first began in 1917 to commemorate the anniversary of the capital shifting from Kyoto to Tokyo. The word EKIDEN refers to the idea of transferring information, packages, people, etc. from station to station across Japan. (Eki = station / Den = transmit)

The most famous contemporary ekiden is probably the Hakone Ekiden, broadcast nationwide every year as 10 male teams from universities in the Kanto region fight for the title.

　© Chunichi Shinbun